The Virus in Me
by Twin-One
Summary: TFAnimated: A group of misfit Autobots find themselves as Sentinel’s recruits at an Autobot boot camp. All goes well, until one of Sentinel’s Elite Guard trainees is mysteriously attacked in his sleep.
1. Drafted

**Author's Note:** This is a fanfic that was written by me and one of my best friends (she goes by Light Derived from Darkness here on FFn, and Darkest-of-Days on Deviantart) via RPing on Instant Messenger. My friend told me that I could upload it into my FFn account since she rarely goes into hers anymore. Actually we've been doing these RPs for quite awhile. However, this one is the most recent one we've done. And we're still writing on it too, so new chapters will come as we write them. I probably won't be turning what we write into chapters until I feel we've written enough to make a chapter.

This story contains both original characters that belong to us as well as official Transformers characters seen in Transformers Animated and the G1 series (although in our minds, the G1 characters have a Transformers Animated look to them in this story).

**PLEASE** keep in mind that this fanfic was written by TWO people with TWO different writing styles, over Instant Messenger. It might gel together really well, but there ARE two writing styles in this fanfic. Yes, there might be some errors here and there. I corrected typos and a few other errors I saw, but I wasn't about to go through the whole thing and correct every single thing. I would appreciate that you would keep all critique to yourself because it is not desired. If you see something not right, please ignore it and enjoy the fanfic for what it is. This is a story that was written purely out of fun by me and my friend. We weren't shooting to win awards or anything.

And I am well aware that some characters are a little out-of-character in this story. There is no need to bring it to my attention. There is a good reason why they're that way. My friend didn't feel like writing every single thing that Wheelie says into a rhyme, so she toned it down a little bit (he only speaks in rhymes every-so-often in our stories). And she also changed his personality and background to be more angst. If you don't like it, don't complain and gripe. I've also changed the Lambo twins just a tad as well. I've made them younger and rookies. Again, if you don't like it, please don't voice your complaints or try to tell me how it's supposed to be. I know good and well how the characters are supposed to act. Changing them a little bit isn't going to hurt anything. This is a Transformers Animated fanfic anyway. Some of the characters in the actual series have a few changes here and there.

**Cast of Characters and Who RPs Them -**

**Darkest-of-Days as:** Reverberate/IMVi, Prism, Retract, Sari, Bulkhead, Optimus Prime, Ultra Magnus, Sentinel Prime, and Wheelie

**Me as:** Rim Shot, Crowbar, Bumblebee, Prowl, Ratchet, Jazz, Sunstreaker, and Sideswipe

The characters of Reverberate/IMVi, Retract, and Prism created and owned by Darkest-of-Days

The characters of Rim Shot and Crowbar created and owned by me

(NONE of these original characters are to be taken and used elsewhere without the permission of either myself or my friend. If you wish to know more about these characters, there are pictures and in-depth info on our Deviantart accounts.)

**Transformers/Transformers Animated and all related characters © Hasbro/Cartoon Network**

Fanfic owned by my friend and myself. None of this fanfic is to be copied, edited, altered, or posted elsewhere without our permission.

**This fanfic rated: PG (for mild violence, disturbing scenes, and slight energon gore)**

* * *

Reverberate was still asleep even though morning had already come; he'd been up late the night before tinkering with various inventions. He was awoken suddenly, however, by a transmission across the small monitor he'd installed in his room. He let out a startled cry and fell out of his bed, landing hard on the floor. "&%#$^&!!!"

"Watch your language, kid," said Ratchet as he entered Reverberate's room. "And do you know what time it is?"

Reverberate rubbed his aching head and looked up at Ratchet grumpily. "Oh give it a rest grandpa, it's not like there's anything worthwhile to do today anyways." Outside it was snowing heavily. "Well, least not for me. I can't turn into a vehicle that you can strap a plow to."

The monitor beside his bed was blinking obnoxiously with an incoming recorded message.

"Does that mean anything to you?" Ratchet ignored the younger bot's words and pointed to the monitor.

Reverberate turned, then yelped. "It means I've got mail! I'm going to rewire it to the main monitor out in the base," Reverberate said, typing in the code. "It's easier to watch out there and doesn't lag. I need a better transmitter in here." He scampered out to see what the message was. "You coming too grandpa?"

Ratchet sighed before following.

Reverberate pattered out into the main area of the Autobot base. He could hear, outside, the others pulling back in from being out helping the plowing companies get the roads clears for commuters. He pressed the play button on the monitor to begin the message. Optimus paused as he stepped in; the image of Ultra Magnus appeared on the screen.

"Greetings to our fellow Autobots stationed on Earth. I am sending this message with regard to your request to allow your companion Reverberate to remain a permanent member of your team. We have reached the conclusion that he may stay with your group."

Ratchet groaned and kept what he felt like saying to himself.

Reverberate paused the message and looked at him. "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothin', why do you ask?"

"Because you look kinda phased out. Oh well," he un-paused the message.

"However, if he is to stay with your group, it must be done on one condition. If he wishes to become an official Autobot, then he has to pass the required tests and complete all manners of Autobot training. Though you may trust him fully we must commence with this as a precaution against potential spies amongst our group. I don't need to remind all of you we have had that problem before. He will be gathered on the evening that this message is dispatched; I have sent Sentinel Prime and Jazz to collect him and bring him to Cybertron in order for him to commence this training. I will contact all of you again soon with progress reports on Decepticon activity, Ultra Magnus out." The message went dead.  
Reverberate stared at it nervously and blinked. "T-test...?"

A smirk crossed Ratchet's lips. "Sounds like Magnus is going to send the kid to boot camp for awhile."

"Boy, does THAT bring back memories." Bumblebee chuckled.

"B-boot camp?! But I don't have any idea what to do! I've never had official training before!" Reverberate freaked out like a student about to take a test in three hours he hadn't studied for. "And they're coming this evening for me?! Wha...what if I don't pass?! They might not let me come back here!"

"Calm down, Reverberate," Optimus said comfortingly. "You'll be just fine. You're very savvy when it comes to fighting and technical stuff. I'm sure you'll do well."

"But...but I'm at such a disadvantage..." he murmured. "I'm still trying to weed out my Decepticon programming...what if it flares while I'm there?! They might throw me in prison!"

"I'm sure that Ultra Magnus is aware of that," Bumblebee mused, "It's Sentinel I'm worried about. Take my advice and stay away from him as much as you can. It doesn't take much to set him off sometimes."

"That's the problem, though. Sentinel's still in charge of training new recruits," Bulkhead said. "Least last time I checked."

"Regardless, Sentinel won't be able to bully you if you prove yourself, and if he does, you can always inform us of it, all right?" Optimus said, and Reverberate nodded. Optimus smiled a bit. "I know this is sudden, but this will make you an official Autobot and there won't ever be any question again of your loyalty to us as friends, and to our cause as a whole."

"I guess that's true..." Reverberate said contemplatively. "I am getting tired of all the suspicion. I'm just afraid of what might happen once I get there..."

"Don't worry little buddy, heck, if Bumblebee and I can make it through it you sure as heck can," Bulkhead said cheerfully.

"And that's sayin' a lot," Ratchet eyed Bumblebee. Bumblebee only grinned.

"Just who are Sentinel Prime and Jazz anyways?" Reverberate asked.

"Well, they're both members of what's called the Elite Guard; Ultra Magnus is basically the military leader of the Autobots, and the Elite Guard serve directly under him."

"But...none of you are Elite Guards...? You should be. You sound more competent than that Sentinel guy," Reverberate commented.

"Never mind..." said Ratchet.

"Never mind what?" Reverberate said, looking up at him.

"Some questions should not be asked," Ratchet's optics moved to Optimus standing across from him. "Because... some do not wish to answer them."

"And besides," Bumblebee said gleefully, "If we were members of the Elite Guard, we wouldn't be here now!"

"But...then you wouldn't have met me or Sari, or any of the other humans," he pointed out. "Hmph. Fine then, keep your secrets grandpa," Reverberate said back. He then sighed, exasperated and a bit overwhelmed. "I'm going to go pack, then, I guess."

"At least no one will be calling me grandpa after he leaves." said Ratchet after Reverberate left the room.

"Aww, I think it's cute he calls ya that," Bulkhead said with a grin.

"He's so nervous. I really do hope Sentinel isn't too hard on him, even though it's an impossible hope..." he sighed. "Sentinel already detests the lot of us. I'm fearful he's going to try and make Reverberate fail if only to try and make the rest of us look incompetent. It wouldn't surprise me if he did."

"Can't we talk to Ultra Magnus if we think something like that is up?" Bulkhead said.

"Yes, but Sentinel is still one of his second-in-commands. I'm just worried how this will affect Reverberate. He's already scared about going through this so suddenly."

"I am sure he'll be fine." Prowl walked into the middle of bots standing in the room, "Just remember that his training starts now. It takes courage to actually go through something like this. As long as Reverberate keeps his Decepticon side well hidden, I don't see what there is to worry about. Sentinel is tough, it's true, but he's overly arrogant and it's an obvious weakness. A lot of bots have gone through his training and survived."

"But...what if he can't keep it hidden? Sentinel's so grating, and he may try and put down Reverberate so much that it might come out," he grimaced. "Wouldn't even surprise me if he went out of his way to try and do that, just to spite us and Reverberate. That guy's a total jerk."

"That's something Reverberate will have to work out for himself, I'm afraid." Prowl crossed his arms. "Once he's there, it's out of our hands."

"Ya know, it'd be nice if Reverberate's 'Con side really did come out while he's there. He could infect Sentinel." Bumblebee laughed.

"I'm pretty sure that'd get him thrown in prison, or at the very least kicked outta camp," Bulkhead said to BB.

"Regardless, we'll have to keep an eye out for trouble, just to be careful. I know I'm sounding overly protective, but I just really want Reverberate to succeed," Optimus said.

"It's just like you to be such a bleeding-heart idealist, Prime. It doesn't surprise me that your lot would take in a stray Decepticon virus; I'm just shocked Ultra Magnus is even giving him this chance."  
Sentinel's face appeared on the screen. "And it's so nice to hear you all approve of me so. Like I care what a bunch of washed-out maintenance bots think of me."

Optimus's optics contracted. "You weren't supposed to be here until the evening."

"We're ahead of schedule and will be there in just an hour. Tell the brat to be waiting for our ship outside the city where it won't garner the attention of those filthy humans," Sentinel spat.

Reverberate stepped out and looked at the screen just as it flickered out. He was buckling at the knee joints. "Eeeennnn...he's not even here yet and he's already annoyed with me...this just can't end well..."

"Uh... You think he heard everything we've been saying?" Bumblebee whispered to Bulkhead.

"Yeah...I think so..." Bulkhead replied.

"You know, even if my Decepticon programming doesn't actually flare, I can't guarantee I won't sink my teeth into him..." Reverberate said a bit angrily.

"Just... stay calm..." said Prowl.

"Yick, I wouldn't. He might infect you instead." said Bumblebee.

Reverberate snickered. "That's a good point. They outta make a virus that makes you act like a jackass like him. It'd be debilitating in the fact that everyone would get so annoyed at you that they'd dismantle you."

"Yeah!"

"Hey guys!" Sari suddenly announced herself as she came into the Autobot base. She was bundled from head to toe in winter clothes and was slowly unraveling herself. "What's going on?"

Reverberate suddenly paused, then looked sad and shuffled behind Bumblebee.

"Eh, nothing new. Reverberate's gonna go to boot camp for awhile." Bumblebee blurted out.

"Uh.... I mean... Was I supposed to say that?"

Sari paused, absorbed it a moment, and then gapped. "What?! He's going away?! But he can't, Christmas is in just a few days and I had everything plaaaaannned!" she whined, cried.

Bulkhead half-glared at Bumblebee. "Niiiice goin'."

Reverberate sniffled. "It's just not fair. I swear they arranged for it right now on purpose."

"Sentinel's fault!" Bumblebee got out before Prowl administered a sharp blow to the back of the young bot's head.

"Why don't you just tell that mean ol' bot to stick it in his aft pipe?" Sari sulked.

"Because this wasn't his decision Sari, it was the decision of Ultra Magnus," Optimus explained. "He wants Reverberate to be put to the test to prove that he's a true Autobot."

Sari looked sad. "But he's proven it to us. A lot of times! Can't they take that as proof?"

"I'm afraid not," Optimus said. "You see all Autobots who serve in the military, no matter the place, need this training to be prepared. So Reverberate needs it too."

"Don't worry," Ratchet sighed, "It's not the end of the world. He'll be back with us before you know it."

Sari sniffled a bit. "You're just saying that to make me feel better..."

"Well..."

"It'll be okay Sari," Reverberate said, stepping in front of her suddenly. "I'm sorry I can't stay around for Christmas. I really wanted to..." he trailed off. "But I still have a gift for you...it's in my room for you to get when the holiday comes around, okay? I made a gift for you and the others too. I'll be sure to message you that day too so we can at least talk, and you can tell me how it went."

"That sounds good." Bumblebee smiled.

"It still won't be the same..." Sari said sadly.

"I know. But there's nothing we can do. This is something I have to do, or I won't be able to stay here anymore," Reverberate said. "Anyways...I should probably start heading to where the ship will be landing..."

"We'll come to see you off." Ratchet said.

Reverberate looked up at him. "Are you sure? You don't have to...I'm sure that Sentinel guy will just bother you all more..."

"Nah, it's fine. We'll come."


	2. The Obstacle Course

The outskirts where the ship was to land was at an abandoned air base. Reverberate stood waiting with his knapsack on in front of the others. "I'm really not sure about this..."

"You'll be okay Reverberate," Sari said. "But...I'll miss you."

"And I you. But...I'll be back," he said, with a less than confident smile. "I just...need to do my best. If you guys have taught me anything it's about being having morals and fighting for decency and not cruelty. I just need to remember that."

"You take care of yerself, kid." Ratchet looked down at Reverberate.

Reverberate smiled up at him. "Thanks grandpa!" he chirped.

Ratchet said nothing and kept a smile on his face, even though he was cringing on the inside.

Optimus smiled down at Reverberate. "You take care of yourself, and keep in contact with us, all right?"

"Yeah, we want to hear how things're goin' while yer there," Bulkhead said with a big grin. "An' don't let 'em put ya down lil guy, you're a lot stronger than ya think you are."

Reverberate smiled. "I'll keep that mind. And don't worry, I brought one of our comlinks with me on my wrist. It'll give you live feed when I activate it and I can talk to you during periods where I'm not training."

"If Sentinel starts giving you trouble, you let us know, okay?" Bumblebee smiled.

"Oh, he already doesn't like me I'm sure, but yes, I'll tell you if he's being especially unfair," Reverberate said. He heard a small humming sound coming from overhead and looked up. The ship had entered the Earth's atmosphere and was making its descent. "Looks like they're here."

"Yep," Ratchet followed everyone else and peered up at the sky.

The ship gradually slipped down through the clouds and towards the ground, landing onto an old airfield that was becoming overgrown with weeds. Reverberate gulped a bit nervously.

"You'll be fine, just relax," Optimus said encouragingly.

The exit panel on the underbelly of the ship dropped, and Sentinel Prime and Jazz both exited.

"Good, least you wash-outs managed to find the spot where the ship would land," he spat. He looked down at Reverberate. "Heh, you're even smaller up close."

"And you're even more a jerk up-close," Reverberate replied, half-muttering.

"What was that?"

"I said this was the perfect landing spot you chose."

"Go easy on 'im, Sentinel," said Jazz as he walked up beside Sentinel and peered down at Reverberate. "You jus' met and already you're snapping his head off."

"Hmph, like I'm going to trust an ex-Decepticon. I don't care if he's been reformatted; I've yet to see a Decepticon that ever truly joined out side and wasn't really a spy," he said, peering down at Reverberate. "Needless to say, little bug, I'm going to be watching you."

Reverberate winced, but then regained his composure. "Well okay, but you're going to be bored. I spend most of my free time tinkering with stuff and recharging."

"Crazy," Jazz murmured under his breath.

"Whatever. We have to go; you were the last stop for gathering this semester's recruits and it's time to head back," Sentinel said, turning and heading back onto the ship.

"Well, guess I'll see you all soon," Reverberate said, nervously. "Oh, I almost forgot..." Reverberate ran back to Sari, who was standing a short distance behind him, and took her hands. "There was something I wanted to try before I left. I just...hope I do it right," he said with a shy smile. He pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I'll see you when I get back and I'll be sure to tell you everything." He turned and ran off towards the ship.

Sari blushed, but then looked sad and just waved to him. "Bye..."

"I've never seen a 'bot your size before," said Jazz as he followed behind Reverberate and into the ship, careful not to step on him, "Fascinating."

"Fascinating?" Reverberate said, looking up at him. "I'm just...a bit tinier is all. Am I even smaller than infant Autobots?" He honestly had no idea.

"Yeah, you are," Jazz continued staring, not meaning too, "although it mostly depends on the bot, but yeah you are a tad smaller than most sparklings."

Reverberate blanched a bit. "Oh..." he felt so tiny all of a sudden. At least with the Autobots, he had Sari around, who was about the same size. Now he was in a very, very, very small minority. *emphasis on _small_* "So...where are the other recruits?"

"Oh, they're right in here," Jazz turned a corner and entered a big room. "Or at least a couple of them," Jazz corrected after looking around the room. "Hm, I wonder where the other one is."

The room was bare aside from a few pieces of furniture, all of which was grey and bleak just like the rest of the room. There were two mechs who were laid back, lounging in a couple of the chairs. The first was golden in color while the second was red, black, and white. Both of them perked and scrambled to their feet when they saw Jazz suddenly hovering over them.

"Reverberate, this is Sunstreaker," Jazz pointed toward the golden mech, "An' this is Sideswipe," he pointed to the red one. "Boys, this is the last recruit we'll be picking up."

Reverberate shyly poked his head out from behind Jazz's foot. "Uh...hi...I'm Reverberate..." he said meekly, his tiny voice barely audible.

"This??" Sunstreaker's voice almost cracked, "You call this a recruit??" he bent down and poked Reverberate's head as if checking to see if he was indeed a living thing. "Sweet Primus, is Ultra Magnus getting desperate?"

Reverberate gave him a partially hurt, partially angry look. "Hey! Don't talk about me like that! I might be small but I make up for it with...being good at other things!"

"It talks!" Sunstreaker said, half mockingly.

"Hey, Sunny, don't talk about him like that." Sideswipe bent down and looked Reverberate over, smiling. "I think he's kinda cool."

Sunstreaker glared at his brother. "And just how is he going to make it through battle? A squirt like that will get flattened to slag in no time. And don't call me Sunny!"

"Hey! Stop making fun of me! I don't attack like all of you do, I'm an infiltrator! I can integrate and merge with our kind and defeat them from within. And I do know physical combat, it's just because I'm small it doesn't come as much in handy here!"

"Whoa, easy little dude," Jazz grabbed hold of Reverberate and pulled him back. "Don't mind them. They're a pain in the skidplate to everyone around here."

"HEY!" Sunstreaker glared daggers toward the white and black mech.

"Better chill, Sunstreaker, or I'll go get Sentinel."

Sunstreaker huffed before retreating back to his chair. Sideswipe still stood, arms crossed.

"He's a bit immature..." Reverberate commented, but he sighed. "But maybe he's right. Maybe I really don't belong here. I don't think I have the correct skills to be an official Autobot..."

"Now don't go lettin' yourself down," Jazz smiled down at Reverberate. "Sunstreaker's just a little hardheaded and says things sometimes."

"And if you don't want to get on his _bad_ side, don't mess up his paint job." Sideswipe grinned and winked.

"So long as he doesn't make more commentary on my size..." Reverberate said. "That's how you get on my bad side."

"Don't take everything he says seriously, Rev. He's always in a grouchy mood." said Jazz.

"Kinda like Sentinel?" Reverberate snickered.

Sideswipe waved off Reverberate's words. "Oh, believe me he's nothing like Sentinel. Sentinel's easy to deal with. When Sunny's in a bad mood, he would just as soon blow your head off and twist you up until the med bots can't tell which end is which. But I'm not saying that to scare you."

"He doesn't scare me. He might act tough, but few people are actually willing to act on their tall talk," Reverberate said. "Sentinel though..." he sighed. "What am I supposed to do about him? He already doesn't like me. How will I ever pass the Autobot tests?"

Jazz and Sideswipe looked at each other. Sideswipe bent down again so he would be at optic level with the tiny bot. "You listen to me. Don't worry about Sentinel. If he ever gives you a hard time, you tell me, okay? I'll deal with him myself."

Reverberate nodded. "Oh...okay," he said quietly. It was then that he noticed another of the recruits watching a bit shyly from the same table that the Lambo twins had been sitting at. "Uh...hi?"

"Hi!" The recruit said, almost surprisingly enthusiastically. Reverberate nearly tumbled back from being startled. The smaller Transformer stood up and hovered over Reverberate with a big grin on his face.

"My name is Wheelie! You're...Reverberate right? Sorry if I was listening but there's so little to do right now..."

"Y-yeah..." Reverberate said, readjusting his visor as he sat back up. This recruit physically looked almost as young as him, just a kid himself. He was a mixture of orange colors and had a rather innocent disposition, from what Reverberate could gather.

"So...you're scared of Sentinel too?" Wheelie asked quietly, once Jazz had left and it was just the two of them and the twins. "He's already being mean to me, and all I did was try and be nice. He says I'm annoying because all the time, I try and use some words that rhyme."

"Like just now?" Reverberate said with a small smile.

"Yeah," Wheelie said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. "He says it makes me seem like an infantbot."

"What do you think _this_ is for?" Sideswipe grinned evilly while putting several buckets of bright orange paint on the table. "Two words, my friend—paint bomb!"

Sunstreaker punched his brother in the arm with his elbow. "You aren't seriously thinking of doing that, are you? I thought you were just joking."

"Why would I be joking?"

Sunstreaker sighed. "Just don't come around me when Sentinel finds out who did it."

Reverberate sighed. "As much as I don't like him, I think it'd be best for me to at least try and get on his good side. My existence is beginning to depend on doing good in this test."

Wheelie smiled. "Don't worry... Jazz is going to help train us too. Ultra Magnus has them both train new recruits to help keep Sentinel in line. So I'm sure if you do all right, there'll be no need to worry about your plight."

Reverberate did seem a bit cheered up by this. "That's a good point. Jazz is really nice and I know he'll be fair."

The ship shuddered a bit, and Wheelie looked up. "I think we're landing."

"'Bout time. I was beginning to get bored on this slagging ship." Sunstreaker growled as he got up and walked toward the door.

Wheelie got up and trotted out happily. Reverberate was slower to follow suit. He was beginning to grow more apprehensive about this situation. None of the others knew...who he had been before. A virus, and a Decepticon to boot. Only Ultra Magnus and Sentinel Prime knew about this because Optimus had discussed it with them directly. What if Jazz and the recruits found out? They might never want to have anything to do with him again, and he'd never succeed. He was beginning to feel a terrible sensation of fear and stress rise up within him.

"So, what are you thinkin' about?" the cheerful voice of Sideswipe came to Reverberate.

Reverberate nearly jumped, afraid almost his thoughts could be heard by all around him. "Oh nothing, nothing...just...nervous about the test today is all. I mean...if I don't pass, I won't...I won't be allowed to go back and be with my friends..." he said, quietly.

As Reverberate talked, Sideswipe playfully threw something unknown at Sunstreaker's head, causing a slight ping sound. The golden mech turned an angry look behind him, only to be met with an innocent smile from his twin. "Oh," Sideswipe finally said. "I'm sure you'll do well. It can't be all that hard. Could it?"

"I don't know. Bumblebee and Bulkhead made it sound pretty tough," Reverberate said worriedly. They stepped off the transport ship onto a massive training field that only ended with the large Autobot command center, and a small gray, shabby building that acted as their dormitories. Reverberate stood next to Wheelie, who gave him a reassuring grin as Sentinel looked them over skeptically.

"Well Jazz, it looks like we have our work cut out for us this time," Sentinel said sarcastically. "A couple of wise-cracking twins, a nursery rhyming colonial runaway and a bug."

Reverberate stuck his tongue out at Sentinel when his back was turned.

Sideswipe put his hand on Sunstreaker's shoulder and pulled him back.

"Just wait, he'll be sorry he ever made that comment." Sunstreaker said softly through gritted teeth, so only Sideswipe and the rest of the recruits could hear.

"All right maggots, the first day of training isn't going to be name-games and house-warming parties. You're going to give your first attempt of the obstacle course that we've erected for all training Autobot soldiers." He pointed to the other side of the field, where there was a massive and elaborate expanse of traps, obstacles, towers, and painful devices all shoved together. Reverberate looked at it skeptically; being a Decepticon before, he supposed, did have its advantages. Poor Wheelie, however, looked pretty horrified of it.

"Wha? We don't even get to rest first?" Sideswipe griped.

"Keep your mouth shut, rookie," Sentinel said. "Rest will come once you've done everything you're ordered to. You won't be getting dinner either until all of you have made it to the end of the course. Since this is a trial run, you won't be timed as you will be for your final exam, so I suggest stopping your whining and getting ready to run it, cause either you will, or I'll put you back on that ship and send you back to wherever Ultra Magnus scraped you and your brother up from."

Sideswipe lip-synced and mimicked Sentinel's movements in a comical manner once the larger mech's back was turned, earning a muffled chuckle from Sunstreaker.

Sentinel looked back sharply and gave them a bitter look. "Do you mongrels think I don't realize you mimicking and mocking me behind my back?" he suddenly shouted into Sideswipe's face. "You can think this is a game, or a farce all you want, but bear in mind I decide your fate. It could be far worse than just returning home, I can have you transferred to maintaining space bridges, tunneling out old Decepticon bases and routes, or even working as a custodian in the base," he shouted.

Sideswipe's face appeared to turn a little pale.

Sentinel smirked. "That's what I thought. It's not so much fun to make fun of the higher-ups when you're staring down some rather nasty alternatives, aren't you? Now pay attention! I want all of you to get stretched and prepared to run the course. Once you've all completed it, you'll be allowed to gather your belongings, get some dinner and settle into your rooms. If one of you doesn't manage to finish before the sun sets, however, you won't get dinner and you'll sleep out here in the field tonight."

"But you said there wasn't a time limit!" Wheelie protested.

"I said I wouldn't be personally timing it. I didn't say you had limitless time," Sentinel spat. "Now I suggest you start getting ready, unless you want less time to try and get your sorry hides through every single bubbling bloodthirsty trap that's waiting for you in there..."

Wheelie gulped and looked afraid.

Reverberate smiled up at him. "Don't worry. You and I can stick together and get through it, okay?"

Wheelie looked down, and nervously nodded, though his smile didn't return.

"If I ruin my paint job during this..." Sunstreaker turned and walked away before he could finish.

Sentinel kept his gaze on Sunstreaker, speaking to Jazz. "I like that one second to last, still more than the bug though," he spat as the recruits started to physically and mentally prepare themselves for the test.

"I still say you need to go easy on them. They're just kids." said Jazz, a little worried.

"It doesn't matter if they're young or old. With the Decepticons back in the picture, they need to be toughened up and made strong as quickly as they can be," Sentinel said, his tone for a moment serious. "If they can't take it, ya weed 'em out. It's the way of the world. Even the bug though stands a chance. I'm more convinced that little orange brat won't make it ten steps into the course. Ultra Magnus said he's a ward of the Autobots; apparently he was found alone in a destroyed colony talking to himself. It figures I get sent the nutcases when I need soldiers," he sighed, annoyed.

Jazz remained quiet.

"I have some sympathy for the kid because of what happened to his family and city, but I need strong and capable fighters here, not kids who have mental incapacities. He'd fit in better with those rejects on Earth, the ones the bug wants so badly to get back to," he paused, then looked at the recruits. "All right, get to the starting line of the course and line up. I'll give the signal when you need to start."

Sideswipe walked up beside his brother and Reverberate, twisting his neck a little. "Agh! I think I just pulled something I didn't even know was there."

"Hopefully it wasn't something you'll need to get through the course," Reverberate said.

Wheelie's knees were buckling a bit as he stood at the beginning of the course. "I-I don't know about this, what if I can't make it through? Then we'll all be punished and, I'll...never be brave enough to try again."

Sunstreaker rolled his optics.

Reverberate kicked Sunstreaker in the ankle, then smiled to Wheelie. "Don't worry, like I said, we'll stick together. The twins probably will too, for the most part, so we'll get through it by helping one another. Okay?"

Wheelie nodded, though still unsure.

"On your marks...get set...go!" Sentinel suddenly shouted.

Reverberate looked at Wheelie with an encouraging smile, then started to run into the course.

"Well?? What are you waiting for?? Get going!" Sunstreaker shouted to Sideswipe, pushing him forward and kicking him slightly in the rear. "I'm not gonna be sleeping out here tonight!"

Wheelie nervously followed after Reverberate once the challenge had begun. The first segment of the course was flat, but as they ran an assortment of traps began to appear. The first one that Reverberate encountered was steel-pronged guns that suddenly unearthed themselves from the soil like serpents and shot non-lethal laser beams at them. He yelped and did a half-dance to try and avoid getting partially fried. Wheelie let out a cry and dropped to his stomach to avoid one, then rolled to dodge another. He got onto his feet and scrambled towards Reverberate.

The twins came up to the two shortly, Sunstreaker gladly making his entrance known by shouting his version of a war cry before ramming his body into the nearest gun and sending it totally out of commission.

"Don't worry about taking out the traps, the sun is setting!" Reverberate called back. Fighting against the traps was technically unsound; this test was all about speed and not strength. He was sure Sunstreaker's tendency towards violence would come in handy eventually, but not here.

The next trap was buried mines. They were just flash bangs, mimic explosions that were meant to stun whoever stepped on them. Reverberate could sense their vibrations underneath the ground and hop scotched over them. Wheelie wasn't so lucky; he was so distraught about this test that he didn't take the time to contemplate that the traps were invisible and sense for the vibrations as well. He accidentally stepped on one, and was engulfed in a rush of light and heat. He was cast forward and landed hard.

Reverberate immediately pivoted in his run and ran back to the stunned bot. "Come on Wheelie, you're all right!" he said, tugging Wheelie's arm. The boy rubbed his head and stumbled back onto his feet.

The twins moved cautiously through the field, but not cautiously enough, however. Sideswipe got hit several times. Sunstreaker got hit more than that, but he kept on going.

Wheelie managed to keep going. "Just follow right behind me, all right?" Reverberate said. He was getting nervous. The sun was starting to set more rapidly and darkness was becoming more rampant. The next part of the course involved scaling various objects. The first was a large, steel wall with only a very slim incline. Reverberate dug his claws into it and started to climb.

Wheelie looked at it rather helplessly. He had wheels, but that was no means to climb it, and he didn't think he could jump that high. "Wha...what do I do Reverberate?!"

"Do what I'm doing Wheelie! I know you don't have claws, but you have fists! Punch some steps and grips into the steel!" Reverberate said.

Wheelie looked at his relatively small clenched fists. He punched into the wall, causing a small indent. He tried again and made a larger one, then planted his foot in it and started to climb.

Sideswipe and Sunstreaker followed closely behind, creating their own reckless methods of getting up and over.

Wheelie's progress was slower but eventually he did manage to scale the wall. The next obstacle was a similar wall, but this time it was laced with obstacles. There were several more guns that shot non-lethal lasers, but also patches of grease and spilt chemicals, simulating the kind of grime you'd have to crawl through during a battle.

Wheelie froze. "I...I can't do it!"

"You have to! We're so close to the end, just this wall and one more obstacle and we're there! Then it's a nice big dinner and a warm room to sleep in tonight!" Reverberate encouraged him. Wheelie let out a worried sigh and started to climb once more behind him, though he was struck several times by the guns and slipped on the slicks of spent oil and corrosive chemicals. It was hard, but Reverberate reached down and gripped him by the edge of his visor, and helped hoist him over. "That's right! Almost done!" he said with an encouraging smile.

Sideswipe came up behind Wheelie and gave him a violent push upward, sending him tumbling into Reverberate. Sunstreaker slammed his fist down on one of the protruding guns before making his way over. He was disgusted at the oil and chemicals that soiled his beautiful golden body.

Wheelie yelped and tumbled into Reverberate, and the two of them tumbled over the side of the wall and landed on the ground below. It was just one more long, flat stretch to the finish line. The sun was setting quickly, but they could still make it!

"Come on!" Reverberate shouted to Wheelie, who looked up and for the first time since the test started, looked hopeful.

The field looked untouched by traps or snares, but suddenly as they ran out, Reverberate saw the flash of distant machines. Suddenly the realistic manifestations of Decepticons appeared around them, and Reverberate found himself staring down a replication of Megatron. He grit his sharp teeth together. "You stopped frightening me a while ago..." he said under his breath. The Decepticon simulations fired at them with non-lethal force, and Reverberate began his way through the gunfire and attacks with relative ease.

"Who came up with this test anyway??" Sunstreaker growled before dodging one of the harmless beams of light.

"Apparently someone with too much time on their hands!" Reverberate shouted back. The twins were holding their own and making progress. They were almost there! Reverberate came to the finish line, panting but content and smiling. He looked back, but...Wheelie hadn't moved across the field yet. At all. He just stared at the simulations with horror in his optics.

"Wheelie, come on!" Reverberate shouted.

But he couldn't hear them. Though they were only computer generated, Wheelie was overcome by the horrible memories that plagued his young mind. Flashes of horror scenes came to him, seeing his city destroyed by the Decepticons. It was as though time were moving at half speed. Amongst the false gunfire he could hear the shrieks of his parents as the Decepticons severed their sparks from them. His small form quivered in a protective shelter his mother and father had created. Voices sneered outside of it.

_"Think we should kill the little runt too?"_

_"Nah, let 'im live. We'll let nature run its course and take care of him for us."_

_"Yeah, pathetic little brat won't last three days wandering around a dead colony..."_

"No! no!" Wheelie suddenly shouted, and he turned and sprinted in the opposite direction. "No, I have to run away from the, away from you!! Run away or they'll kill me too!" he shouted. He slid on the wheels on his feet and skimmed around the edge of the wall and collapsed there, his back against the wall and his knees drawn in against himself.

Reverberate ran back across the field and over to him. "Come on Wheelie! I know you're scared but they're only holograms, they're not real!"

"No, no! I can't!" Wheelie said. "I can't and won't, I even tried. But I can't after...all that died..." he whimpered.

Reverberate looked back; as he did, the sun sunk beneath the horizon. The time limit had expired. Reverberate sighed as Wheelie grasped his face, with shame and disgust for himself, but he was shaking. Reverberate tried to comfort him and hugged the small bot around his waist. "It's okay...really, we'll make due tonight, all right? It'll be all right...the Decepticons are frightening, I'm sure you aren't the first to be afraid..." he said, quietly. But Wheelie just looked hurt and ashamed.

The twins ran up to Reverberate's side. "Hey, is he okay?" Sideswipe asked.

"He's a bit traumatized is all...Sentinel mentioned his city was destroyed by the Decepticons. Even though they were only illusions...I think it really scared him," he said.

"I can't do it," Wheelie said, quietly. "Not yet, at least...I can't face them. Even if they are fake. The Decepticons killed everyone, you see, and all they left was death...and me..."

Sentinel sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Little basketcase..." he muttered. "We need an asylum here, I swear. But it doesn't matter, those were only illusions and you all needed to finish in order to get dinner and a room for the night, so have fun with empty stomachs and a cold field to sleep on tonight," he said to the recruits.

"You could try being more sensitive!" Reverberate shouted at Sentinel. "You know Wheelie's been through Hell and back with what he saw in his colony! You should be ashamed for making him sound like some sort of psychopath and not a victim of something horrible!"

Sentinel growled at him. "I won't have that kind of vulgar talk against me, bug," he said, reaching down and seizing Reverberate. "I'm going to have fun training you tomorrow, which will be all the more fun that you'll have a sleepless night in a cold field and no sustenance." he dropped him harshly and departed.

Wheelie grimaced, then sighed. "You all must hate me now...I'm the reason we don't get food to eat, or a nice warm place to sleep..."


	3. A Cold, Hungry Night

"I shoulda punched him." Sunstreaker said. "I shoulda punched him so hard he would have been the one seeing illusions."

"Give it a rest, Sunny." Sideswipe sighed.

Reverberate sighed. "What's done is done. It's not going to kill us to go without one meal and have to sleep outside. I'm sure it'll be one of the lesser aspects of our training."

Wheelie was quiet; he just looked guilty, and still a bit horrified after his encounter with the holographic Decepticons.

Sunstreaker heavily sat down on the ground and looked at his still soiled body. He grimaced at the thought of not being able to wash it off.

"It'll do you good, bro." Sideswipe smiled while walking past Sunstreaker. The golden mech only gave his brother a hard, cold stare that could have pierced steel, fighting back what he felt like doing. "So who's gonna sleep where?" said Sideswipe.

"I don't think it matters much. The training field is shut down now, the weapons and traps aren't active anymore," Reverberate couldn't hear the hum of the machines at all. "I suppose we can settle wherever we want to and rest. I'm going off for a bit to talk to my friends back on Earth for a bit. I promised I'd talk to them each night."

"You're lucky," Wheelie said quietly. "That you have such friends to talk to and confide in, and the security of their friendships for you to hide in."

Reverberate looked at him sadly for a moment before he left. He looked at Sunstreaker. "Stop sulking and keep an eye on him while I'm gone. He's mentally distressed and doesn't need you complaining about some mud on your aft."

Sunstreaker shot Reverberate an annoyed glare.

Reverberate returned his glare. "Stop acting like a child. Do you think if you go into a serious battle, the enemies are going to pause for a couple minutes to let you wash up?"

Sunstreaker said nothing.

Reverberate continued on and went somewhere private, behind one of the walls of the obstacle course. He turned on the intercom, which was linked directly to the Autobot's main computer system. He didn't put out a beckon for anyone in particular. "Hello?" he said into the small speaker, the screen on his arm crackling to life to show the inside of the Autobot base.

Reverberate's screen showed Bumblebee sitting in one of the control center's chairs, leaned back and snoring.

Reverberate sweatdropped and sighed. But then a small smirk came across his face. If nothing else remained of his old viral self, it was his malicious love of pranking others. He searched his data files for old voice recordings and programmed the code of a certain one into his processor, so he could essentially mimic another's voice. He spoke into the intercom menacingly. "It's a shame that you're asleep and unable to see my troops currently infiltrating your base, Bumblebee..." his voice was emulating Megatron's dark, deep tone and sounded exactly like his. Reverberate, however, did not change his image. He just wanted something to wake up his friend, though in a rather mean way.

Bumblebee jumped nearly three feet into the air before crashing down on the floor. "W--What??!? Megatron?!? Megatron's found us!!! Optimus! Megatron's found us... oh..." Bumblebee scowled at the screen when he saw Reverberate's face. "You little..."

Reverberate was laughing his airy little hiss of giggles. "Hahaha! You fell for that so easily. Maybe you should think twice about falling asleep during guard duty though. It's not the best idea with the Decepticons looking for you."

"Very funny, Reverberate."

Reverberate's malicious grin turned into a friendly one. "Hey, sorry if I startled you. I just couldn't resist seeing you sleeping there. How are things since I left? I know it's only been a day, but..."

"Things are the same. Sari still misses you."

Reverberate chuckled a bit. "Tell her I miss her too, when you see her tomorrow. I miss the rest of you too. Things aren't going so well so far. Sentinel really doesn't seem to like me or the other recruits much. I do like the three others I've trained with so far. There's a pair of twin brothers named Sunstreaker and Sideswipe, and a young bot named Wheelie."

"Still the same old Sentinel." Bumblebee shook his head. "Well, at least you don't have bullies in the recruits you're training with. Believe me, it's harder when you have bullies AND Sentinel to deal with."

"Not yet, at least. But I am glad for that, though the twins do rib me a little about my size. Wheelie's nice though, but...he's a bit scarred. According to Sentinel he was orphaned by the Decepticons and found by himself in a destroyed colony, so mentally...he's not entirely there. I feel sorry for him though; I think he has a lot of potential, but he needs to overcome his fears first."

"Sad," said Bumblebee.

"I can only assume you're the only one 'still up', and I use that term loosely," he smirked. "But tell the others I said hi and I'm doing okay thus far."

"I'll be sure to do that. No, I'm not the only one still up. I think the Hatchet is still up somewhere." Bumblebee smirked.

"Do you think you could go and see if you can find him? There was something I wanted to ask him," Reverberate said quietly.

"Ask me what?" Ratchet's voice said behind Bee.

"Whoa! Don't do that again!" Bumblebee jumped.

"What's going on? I could hear you yellin' clear across the plant."

Bumblebee pointed at the screen.

Reverberate snickered. "I found an interesting and rather mean way to way up the dedicated guard on duty," he said with a smirk. "How are you doing Ratchet?"

"I'm doin' fine. How's it going so far?"

"Could be better, could be worse. I wanted to ask something though. You've always kept a close eye on the activity on Cybertron since the war started back up. Did you hear anything about a colony near the main city that was attacked by the Decepticons?" he asked.

Ratchet scratched his head and thought a minute. "Yeah, seems like I heard somethin' 'bout a Decepticon attack near there. Why?"

"There's a recruit here named Wheelie who's a really...scarred young boy who was the only survivor of a relatively recent attack. I was just wondering if you'd heard any specifics on it."

Ratchet remained silent for awhile before answering, "Can't say that I have. Perhaps Ultra Magnus would know."

"I haven't seen him at all since we arrived, or I'd ask him," Reverberate sighed. "All right. Just figured I'd inquire if you were around."

Ratchet smiled. "Take care of yourself, kid."

Reverberate smirked back at him. "You take care of yourself too grandpa. I want you to still be as stubbornly spry as ever when I get back."

"That won't be a problem." Ratchet shifted his optics to Bumblebee.

Reverberate snickered. "I'll see you both soon and keep in contact. Give the others my regard," he waved towards the intercom, then shut it off and sighed. He stood and headed back towards the others.

When Reverberate reached the rest of the group, Sideswipe suddenly snatched him up and placed his hand over his mouth, making a shush sound next to his audio receptor.

"I'm glad you're back. I was beginning to wonder if 'it' grabbed you." Sideswipe whispered.

"'It?' What 'it'?" Reverberate said, his voice muffled by Sideswipe's hand. "This some sort of prank your brother put you up to?"

Sunstreaker carefully walked up beside Sideswipe, followed closely by Wheelie. "I wish it was a prank." Sunny said softly. "There's something out there. We've been hearing it ever since you went behind the wall. And Sideswipe thought he saw something over there."

Sideswipe was about to say something, when a shadowed figure came walking toward the group. All that could be seen in the darkness was the soft glow of deep blue optics. Carefully the shadow made its way to the huddled mass of bots, stopping occasionally to listen or look around as if it expected to be caught.

Reverberate paused; he didn't look afraid, more curious than anything. "Who's there?" he called out, slipping out of Sideswipe's arms and approaching the figure that was heading towards them. "Identify yourself!"

Wheelie was cowering behind the twins nervously.

The stranger stopped and looked down at Reverberate but said nothing.

"It—it's a... an Autobot." Sideswipe said, apparently turning on his night vision.

Reverberate sighed. "I should have known you guys would panic over nothing..." He looked up at the Autobot. "Who are you? Are you another recruit?"

The Autobot nodded his head silently before letting the bag he held slip from his hand and onto the ground, spilling several energon cubes.

Reverberate saw them spill out, then knelt down and started to put them back in. "Why are you so quiet? There's no need to be shy. We're all nervous about this training too, you know."

"I—I can't help it," the muffled voice came out, as if the figure had something in his mouth. "It's just... I shouldn't... be here..."

Sideswipe stared at the bot as he came closer to the group. The bot, apparently sensing the stare, nervously looked down at the thumb stuck in his mouth and quickly removed it. "S--sorry, I do it when I'm nervous. A habit I've had ever since I was a sparkling..."

"It's fine," Reverberate shot a quick glare at Sunstreaker, daring him to make a snide comment.

"H-hi..." Wheelie said towards the newcomer, his tone shy as his head poked around Sideswipe.

"Hey," the Autobot nervously looked around again before coming all the way into the middle of everyone. The newcomer was young and short, much like Wheelie, and was a bright white and green color. "I--I just thought you might like these," he gestured towards the bag of energon cubes. "I know what happened. I saw... everything."

"Yeah. Sentinel isn't exactly the friendliest type," Reverberate said. "I appreciate the gesture, but personally I don't survive on energon cubes."

Wheelie hesitantly came forward and took one when offered. "Thanks...my name's Wheelie..." he said meekly.

"Mine's Rim Shot," he said with a smile. "I haven't been here very long, but I do know how Sentinel can be. He's been on my back ever since I got here. He'd offline me if he knew I was out here right now."

"Eh, I don't take Sentinel too seriously. Optimus and the others warned me he was a jerkwad long before I came here, so I'd expect nothing less."

Wheelie munched on the energon cube rather contently; the small bot was starving and the energy tasted good.

"Yeah, I'm surprised he doesn't have us in chains. Then again I guess this is nicer." Sideswipe smirked.

"Hey, sleeping out under the stars and planets isn't half bad, though I miss home," Reverberate said, lying back against one of the walls. "Sentinel doesn't scare me. I've seen far scarier bots than him..." he quieted.

"Like old Megahead?" Sideswipe joked before he and Sunstreaker burst out laughing. "If he's as ugly and scary as I've heard and seen in history vids, I don't think I'd want to ever meet up with him. Then again, I bet Sunny could take him out with one blow." he nudged his brother before taking another swig of energon.

Sunstreaker glared, "How many times have I told you. Don't call me Sunny!!"

Rim Shot smiled quietly as he watched the two twins joke and laugh.

Wheelie didn't seem amused. "It's not funny..." he said after a moment. "Megatron might be a joke when he's not nearby, but...if he were standing here right now I don't think you'd be laughing..."

Reverberate nodded. "Yes...let's talk about something else. I've dealt with Megatron personally and he's no laughing matter, like Wheelie says..."

"Megatron doesn't scare me," Rim Shot said meekly, "And I can handle Sentinel. But what scares me the most is the creature called humans."

"I've heard humans have the ability to destroy mechs, even though they're small..." Wheelie said apprehensively. "That they can spew acid that can corrode right through our metal!"

Sideswipe had to laugh more.

Wheelie looked at the twins with a hurt gaze. "Hey, don't laugh at us! I'm sure you're both scared of humans too, neither of you have ever seen them!"

"The only thing I'm scared of is Sunstreaker when he wakes up in the morning." Sideswipe held in the laughter that was about to burst out. Sunstreaker had that 'strangle' look in his optics. Sideswipe straightened up and cleared his throat. "Yeah, humans are pretty scary, I guess. Although I haven't really thought much about them. For the longest time I believed they were just a myth."

Reverberate snickered a bit, and then broke out into a laugh. Wheelie looked at him, puzzled. "Why are you laughing so hard?"

"Because those rumors are such lies..." he said, wiping away an oily tear. "Humans are not only harmless, but friendly as well. They don't shoot acid or have contaminants at all."

"You lived on Earth, so you must have been around them..."

"Been around them? My best friend is a human..." Reverberate said with a smile. He fished out a photo of himself and Sari taken at a carnival. Sari hand her arms around his neck playfully and he was holding a prize he'd won for her at one of the booths. Both were smiling broadly. "See?"

Sideswipe jumped back in alarm. "That's a human? I didn't know they were green and had bugged eyes." He continued to eye the stuffed frog Sari held.

"Not the frog! That's a fake animal doll I won for her, humans think they're cute, especially when they're young. This is Sari, a human," he said, pointing to her.

"Ohhhh..." Sideswipe tilted his head a bit.

Rim Shot silently looked away.

Reverberate looked at Rim Shot. "What's wrong? Are you really that scared of humans?"

The green mech nodded.

"But they aren't dangerous at all, trust me. I've spent a lot of time with them, and this one, my friend Sari, she has a powerful weapon that she's used to help us defend against Megatron and the Decepticons," he explained, pointing to the Allspark key around her neck. "It's a part of the Allspark, though its formation is still a bit of a mystery to me."

"She's got a piece of the Allspark?!" Sideswipe and Sunstreaker said together. "How??" Sideswipe continued, "I thought it was lost in the war. Or, at least, that's what I read."

"It was shattered, actually. During a conflict with the Decepticons it was fragmented, but not destroyed. My friends on Earth have been slowly gathering the pieces that were strewn all over the place. Gathering them too, unfortunately, is also the Decepticons," Reverberate took a sip of an unknown fluid from a thermos he'd brought with him.

"Primus," Sideswipe breathed.

"But Sari is one of the keys of the Autobots. Even Ultra Magnus believes she's essential to succeeding in bringing down Megatron on Earth. It's only a matter of time, at least that's what I believe," Reverberate said.

Wheelie looked mystified. "You...you really think that Megatron can be stopped?"

Reverberate nodded confidently.

"Like it's going to help," Sunstreaker snorted, "He'll find a way to return again. You'll see. He always does. The only way he'll ever be stopped is if someone blasts a hole right through his unforgiving spark chamber."

"I'm sure even that wouldn't stop him..." Wheelie said fearfully. "I've heard he's like a demon. Like something so evil that he can't be stopped, or even killed."

"Of course he can be killed," Reverberate said. "He's just really strong so it's hard to do. But the Autobots have come close several times to bringing him down permanently. It's only a matter of time. And with their big boss out of commission, it's unlikely the Decepticons would be able to find a strong enough leader before Ultra Magnus sent out parties to disperse the lots of them. There'd be no Decepticon threat anymore."

"There's that one..." Sideswipe struggled to remember, "Starwhine? Or something like that."

"You kiddin'? He couldn't stand a chance against Ultra Magnus and the rest of the Autobots." said Sunstreaker.

"You mean Starscream," Reverberate said, though he broke out laughing. "Though I like Starwhine better personally. It's closer to how he acts from what I've seen. But don't discredit him yet; as much of a cocky idiot as he can be at times, he's a strong Decepticon. The first time that it seemed Megatron was gone, it was because Starscream had managed to come close to destroying him. Starscream's lobbying juuuuust a little for Megatron's spot at being Decepticon leader."

"You mean they fight amongst themselves?" Wheelie asked.

"Constantly. Megatron has about as many loyal followers as Sentinel has friends. But he's strong enough that most his minions stay in line out of fear. Only Starscream's been stupid enough to keep trying time and time again to uproot him and take his spot. It's kinda sad, but at the same time kinda ballsy. He's the only one I can think of that's attempted it so many times."

"Maybe the Decepticons will destroy one another. Then we wouldn't have to worry with it." said Sideswipe.

"You know, I've contemplated that myself, but Megatron keeps that from happening," Reverberate said. "He's powerful enough that the Decepticons won't even fight one another out of fear of getting him angry and getting themselves turned into scrap metal. If Megatron's removed from the picture, it'll be a lot easier to bring down their entire front."

"Perhaps some of them will even join us." Rim Shot said softly.

Wheelie cringed a bit. "I hope that doesn't happen! I don't think we could ever trust bots like that. If they were willing to follow Megatron, they can't be right in the head. Besides, almost all of them are war criminals. Even if Megatron was gone, could...could they really just forgive all of them...?"

Reverberate was silent.

"Everyone has a choice," Rim Shot continued calmly, "No bot is born a Decepticon. At one time, they were as innocent as you and I. Somewhere along the way they just... made the wrong choice. I believe there is still hope for them if they're willing to turn. I believe in giving everyone a chance. Just because they follow Megatron it doesn't make them monsters. Like he said," Rim Shot pointed toward Reverberate, "most serve him out of fear."

Reverberate gasped a bit, then hung his head slightly. "Tell me, Rimshot...you say that...all bots are born innocent. But...what about machines like the old Decepticon viruses? They were created only to serve Megatron, they were...never good beings..." he said, his tone suddenly entirely serious. His whole mood seemed to have shifted.

Wheelie noticed and looked concerned, but said nothing.

Rim Shot looked at Reverberate, blinking a few times as if he didn't know what the small bot was talking about. "I don't believe I understand. Decepticon viruses?"

"They don't exist anymore. At least not rampantly. But back during the original war, there were Decepticon viruses that were created. They were around the same size as I am, and were created purely as servants to Megatron. They could literally eat their way into Autobots and integrate into them, force them to kill their own comrades before tearing their sparks to shred. None of them had any personality. They were just machines without a spark. So tell me, if we found even one of those robots, what would you say to them? Even with Megatron gone, their nature is to destroy and kill. What then...?"

Rim Shot sat silently in thought. "Machines... without a spark..." he mused rather sadly and slightly confused. "It could be reprogrammed to do good, couldn't it? Everything deserves a chance."

"These machines for the most part don't have sentience that can be reprogrammed in the first place," Reverberate said. "They only have one objective. Kill Autobots. They were even designed with a failsafe in case the Autobots caught one that they would just deconstruct themselves so that the Autobots would have nothing to try and gain information from."

"How sad," said Rim Shot, "Still... things have a way of happening."

"If one were ever converted into an Autobot, would any of you trust it?" Reverberate said quietly. "Even know what it could have done...during the war? That it's programming was still there and...and could come back at any time, if the Autobot's reprogramming slipped?"

Wheelie shivered. "I...I don't think I could..." he said nervously.

Sideswipe and Sunstreaker looked at each other and shrugged.

Reverberate sighed. "Fair enough. Maybe it's time for me to be honest. I'm sure Sentinel's sure enough to tell all of you the truth eventually, if only to spite me..."

"You don't have to tell us anything, if you don't want to." said Rim Shot.

Reverberate half-shrugged. "You deserve to know. If nothing else because...because some of the things I said are very possible. You see..." he paused a moment, as though reconsidering, but then took in another breath. "I used to be a Decepticon virus."

Wheelie just looked utterly shocked.

A slight gasp came from Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. Rim Shot continued to sit quietly as if unmoved by the sudden news.

"I have the sneaking suspicion that you knew," Reverberate said to Rim Shot. "But then again given your intuitiveness, that's not surprising."

"You...you were a Decepticon?" Wheelie said. He looked a bit scared.

Reverberate smiled a bit, sadly. "Yeah, I was. For a long time, actually. I was created at the beginning of the original war, and one of the few that survived until now. But Megatron eventually tried to put me permanently out of commission, and the Autobots saved me. They installed a spark into me and gave me a new identity as an Autobot. But...there's still remnants of my viral programming left in me. I'm always trying to fight it off."

"Whoa," Sideswipe breathed.

"I'm content in my reasoning that the only reason I was able to be reformatted at all was because, after so many millennia of life, I eventually adapted and created my own sentience even with the absence of a spark. But...my core programming is still there. It's buried, but not forgotten. Now you all know why Sentinel hates me so much. He and Ultra Magnus both knew what I was before. They sent me here to test me and see if I can keep it repressed and hold up purely Autobot ideals without faltering, and if I can, I'll be allowed to go back to my friends. But if the programming surfaces, I...I'll...probably be exterminated..." he said, quietly. "They know...I'm sentient. That I have my own personality now, but...if I were to revert back to how I was, in early existence...to be seen as a monster like I was created, there would be no reason to spare me."

The twins only sat and stared. Rim Shot lowered his head.

Reverberate sighed sadly. Wheelie looked a little afraid, though he didn't move from where he was sitting next to Reverberate.

He stood. "I...I'll go sleep by the other wall tonight." he said quietly, turning and leaving.

Wheelie looked sad. "I don't know what to think of this..."

Rim Shot nervously looked at the twins and then at Wheelie.

Wheelie looked at him funny. "What's...what's wrong with you? You said earlier that someone can...can change..." he said, quietly.

"It's not that," Rim Shot looked toward where Reverberate had disappeared. "It's just... he needs us. He needs friends."

"I want to be his friend..." Wheelie said. "I mean I am his friend. But...but I'm scared, really scared of Decepticons and...and he might have killed other Autobots back when he was a virus. I..." Wheelie broke off. He looked so confused. "I don't know what to think..." he whimpered.

"It's only natural to fear them. I think we all do in some way, whether we admit it or not. But we shouldn't judge someone by their past. Reverberate is one of us and we're in this together, so we're going to have to learn to trust each other."

Wheelie was just quiet. He still seemed lost as to what to make of this. Fearing the Decepticons had become a large part of his persona, and his mental instabilities. But Reverberate had stood up for him, had comforted him when he'd had a breakdown during the test. How could he be the same...the same thing as those monsters that had destroyed his village, killed his family? _How?!_

"Yes I knew," Rim Shot suddenly said.

Wheelie looked up sharply. "Knew what? That he...that he was once a Decepticon?"

Rim Shot nodded. "I-I happened to hear when Ultra Magnus was talking with Optimus Prime. I-I didn't mean to, it just... just sort of happened. They don't know about it—Ultra Magnus and Sentinel."

"Well, now you can just tell them that he told us..." Wheelie said quietly. He looked at the twins. "You two are awfully quiet..."

Sideswipe shrugged. "What's to say? Besides, it's way past my recharge time."  
Rim Shot ignored Sides and turned back to Wheelie, his voice quieter than it had been. "I can't. They don't know I was listening. If Sentinel ever finds out, he'd come down on me harder than he already has. If anyone tells him and Magnus that he told you, it has to be Reverberate himself."

Wheelie frowned. "I'm going to go and look for him," he said, standing.

"What are you planning to do?"

"I want to talk to him," Wheelie said, quietly. "It's almost morning and training will start soon. I might not get much more of a chance."

Rim Shot remained silent as he watched Wheelie walk away. He turned his gaze to the twins, who by this time were lying as comfortably as they could manage on the hard ground, slowly drifting off into recharge. Sideswipe used one of Sunstreaker's legs as a pillow. Rim Shot sighed to himself. He didn't want to be there any more than the rest of them did.


	4. First Day of Training

Reverberate had fallen asleep already, or as close as a mech could be to asleep. Wheelie carefully carried him back to the group.

"I don't like the idea of him sleeping by himself. We don't know what's out here in this field..." he said quietly. He yawned and looked tired. "I think we should all get some rest though or we won't be ready for more training tomorrow..."

Rim Shot nodded.

Wheelie laid back and eventually fell asleep.

Reverberate's nose twitched a bit as the first heat of the day came, and the sun rose. They were all sleeping near one another. His hunger receptors tingled a bit, but he'd gone a lot longer without food. He opened his eyes a bit; for a moment, he thought he was dreaming. There was a sleek form standing over him that was near illuminated by the rising sun. It almost looked like an angel in the pictures that Sari had showed him. But then the light shifted slightly, and he could see the person staring down at him. He yelped and jumped off the ground when he realized it wasn't a dream.

"Didn't think I was quite so scary..." Prism said quietly, her tone somewhat serious. Her expression was relatively apathetic, though she raised an eyebrow at Reverberate.

A hard snore came from Sideswipe.

"Someone's a little lazy..." Prism said, stepping up beside where Sideswipe was sleeping. "It's not very efficient to be a heavy sleeper if you're going to be a soldier. Otherwise this happens." She suddenly aimed one of her shoulder cannons and blasted the ground apart only a few inches from Sideswipe's torso. Of course it didn't hurt him, but the sound was very loud and rocks shot down from the air where the debris had flown.

Sideswipe jolted awake and scrambled to his feet. "Great galaxies! What happened??"

"Mom, I didn't do it!!" Sunstreaker shouted in a dazed state as he rolled over and peered around him.

Prism gritted her teeth. "All of you up and at attention! I'm only training you for one day but you're going to wish I hadn't," she said with a slight smirk. She looked down at Reverberate. "Tonight I get shipped off to Earth to observe your little friends stationed there. Let's hope all goes well or Ultra Magnus might rethink leaving them there."

Reverberate looked at her tiredly, and angrily. "What are you supposed to be, some sort of female Sentinel?"

Prism glared at him. "If you were trying to get on my good side, that wasn't the way to go about it. Sentinel might be rash but my assessment will be fair."

"Yeah, nothing rash about using a laser cannon to wake someone up..." Reverberate muttered.  
Wheelie was cowering at the top of one of the walls. Prism sighed. "Maybe that was a bit harsh, but you have to be prepared for anything. If you're sleeping heavily in the middle of a battlefield, you're going to get shot."

Rim Shot (fully awake now) continued to sit silently to the side, optics huge and thumb in mouth. He carefully watched the new stranger in front of him as if expecting her to start blasting at him next.

Prism looked at Rimshot quietly. "Get your thumb out of your mouth. You aren't a sparkling anymore."

Rim Shot quickly obeyed, his optics still huge.

"Primus, what's this?" Sunstreaker said, getting up and standing beside Sideswipe. "Ya gotta be kiddin' me. A femme bossing mechs around? What sort of boot camp is this?"

Prism suddenly looked back at Sunstreaker, but then smiled sweetly...and aimed her shoulder cannons at them. "What did you say sweetie?" She'd never actually fire them at him, but she's was getting a bit tired of hearing the sexist comments.

"N—nothing!" Sunstreaker put his hands up. "I said nothing! Honest!"

Prism smiled more brightly as her guns retracted. "That's what I thought. Now! All of you line up in the middle of the training field. Today we're going to learn about sparring and hand to hand combat."

Without another word the twins and Rim Shot obeyed, Sunstreaker nearly tripping over his brother.

Once they were all lined up, Prism stepped out in front of them. "All right, now that we're all awake and in order, can anyone tell me what they already know about hand to hand combat?"

"Um...I think I was told before that it was a last resort if weapons failed..." Wheelie said.

"Wrong, though a common misconception. Hand to hand combat is one of the best means to bring down Decepticons, believe it or not. Most of them are only trained in using weapons and firearms, but lack severely in fighting with their fists when the weapons are disabled. It can mean the difference between victory and defeat in battle."

Reverberate rubbed one of his optics tiredly. "But what about someone like me? I can't possibly fight someone of even your sizes, let alone some of the behemoth Decepticons..."

"I can teach you techniques that will make up for your size."

"All right, I want all of you to line up in the middle of the field in a line. Give one another space; you're going to be moving around a great deal. I'm going to teach you some sparring moves that will let you fight Decepticons hand to hand should the need ever come," Prism instructed; now that every was up, she seemed a little less tense.

Reverberate and Wheelie high-tailed it before she could become angry again.

The Twins and Rim Shot followed; glad to get away from the new instructor.

Prism waited for them to sift themselves out, then stood in front of them erect. She seemed to have taken this training herself, since her movements were rigid but organized. "All right, there are five of you so one of you will have to be paired with me in order for us to do our first exercise. Considering you all seem to be somewhat afraid of me still, I'll just have to chose myself..." she said, contemplatively. She then smirked a bit and pointed at Sunstreaker. "You'll be my partner. I don't want you messing around with your twin and shunning the activity, and you have a loud mouth that I want to make sure stays shut so I get out a few instructions."

Sideswipe grinned as he punched his brother in the shoulder. "Good Luck," he whispered. Sunstreaker grumbled something under his breath and walked forward to stand beside Prism.

Prism waited for him to stand beside her, then looked to the others. "Reverberate will work with Rimshot. Wheelie, you work with Sideswipe," she said, though she didn't arrange them this way to be unkind. Wheelie seemed like he needed someone a bit older and stronger than him to guide him through, and Reverberate and Rimshot appeared to be friends from what she could see. "All right, we'll stand in two lines. Partners face one another. Follow my instructions exactly; I don't want any of you getting hurt." Once they were in formation, she took a defensive stance of fighting. It looked similar to a cat stance in martial arts training, with the weight supported by her back leg and her arms and hands raised readily. "All right.

My side is on the defensive. The other side is offensive; when I give the signal, I want the attacking side to begin trying to strike their partner. Don't make it into a mad rush; we want to take things slow to practice defensive techniques. Sunstreaker and I will demonstrate them first. Sunstreaker, you can attack me at your fullest ability if you want, now," she commanded, still in position for it.

Sunstreaker, not looking that amused, took a swing at Prism.

Prism easily caught his arm in her hand and swung him in the direction of his move with ease, even though he was actually larger than she was. As a femme, her structure looked somewhat delicate, but it was an allusion she'd come to benefit from. Sunstreaker landed beside her.

"That defensive move is just one of many that uses your enemies own momentum and strength against them. Every time you punch, kick, or thrust a part of yourself at someone else, there is a charge of energy that keeps your body propelled so that the attack lands itself. If you channel that energy into a continuous path and away from yourself, you can make them fall over themselves. Now I want all of you to try it."

Wheelie gulped, his knees buckling a bit. He was on the defensive.

Reverberate looked at Rimshot; he was on the offensive. "I'll do what I can to attack..."

Rim Shot blankly looked down at Reverberate. He hated fighting. In fact, he had questioned why he was even there many times since he had arrived.

Reverberate looked up at him. "You don't seem too happy to be doing this. But if the Decepticons ever attacked, we'd need to know this," he suddenly leapt up into the air and swirled around, thrusting his leg down into a sharp kick towards Rimshot.

Wheelie looked at Sideswipe fearfully. "D-don't try to hit me too hard, okay?"

Sideswipe grinned, "If I knock you out, I'll give you the pleasure of knocking me out later."

Wheelie whimpered a bit, then shakily took the defensive pose that Prism showed them. His was awkward since he was so nervous.

Reverberate launched his kick down at Rimshot. "Do what she said and deflect it!" he shouted. "Violence will come no matter if you want it to or not! What matters is if you know how to deal with it or not!"

Sideswipe looked at Wheelie for a few minutes before pulling back. "Are you going to be okay? I was only joking, you know."

Rim Shot suddenly reached out and grabbed Reverberate and flipped him over as easily as one would flip a piece of clothing. Reverberate flew through the air and landed with a hard clank next to Rim Shot. Rim Shot looked around sheepishly.

Reverberate grumbled a bit, his two wiry legs sticking out of the ground. He eventually pulled himself out, and coughed out a ball of hardened dirt. "Nice one, though I think the landing was a little hard...I think I feel something rattling around," he said, smacking the side of his head. Small chunks of dirt came out of his auditory sensors.

"Sorry," Rim Shot said, barely above a whisper.

Reverberate smiled a bit. "It's okay. I've been hit a lot harder than that, trust me. Besides, it's like the saying goes. Whatever doesn't send you offline makes you strong." He suddenly struck a defensive pose. "Now it's my turn."

"Uh... you sure this is a good idea?" Rim Shot, again, looked down at Reverberate.

"Of course it is! I need to learn how to defend against someone a lot bigger than me don't I? C'mon, give me your best shot! I might surprise ya," Reverberate said, readying himself.

Rim Shot continued to eye Reverberate, and then he shrugged and ran forward. He wasn't sure how he was going to hit Reverberate, since he was so small. Rim Shot shuddered a bit at the thought of stepping on him or worse...

Reverberate was prepared, however, and as Rimshot approached him, he suddenly ducked down and did a split across the leg, stretching out his skinny legs just right so that he tripped Rimshot and literally slinkered between his legs, lowering his head and torso forward so that he ducked underneath, then somersaulted so that he was back onto his feet in the blink of an eye.

Rim Shot fell to the ground with a hard thud. It took him a few minutes to really understand what had happened, but once he got his sense back he picked himself up again.

Reverberate smirked at him a bit cockily, though it was not meant to be a malicious gesture. "Hehe, didn't see that coming did you? Are you okay?" Reverberate asked Rim Shot. "Maybe I overdid it..."

Rim Shot smiled. "I'm okay. Don't worry. But I do like the way you handled that."

Reverberate smiled a bit bashfully. "Heh...I do have quite a bit of experience..."

"Likewise," Rim Shot smiled.

"I...I'm ready..." Wheelie said, though his voice lacked nearly any trace of confidence as he stood in front of Sideswipe.

"Alright," Sideswipe ran forward and took a swing at Wheelie. Wheelie yelped and stepped back, managing to grab Sideswipe's arm as he swung at him, but he lost his balance and toppled backward, pulling Sideswipe down on top of him, hard.

Sideswipe let out a sharp, shrill scream (which he obviously didn't mean to do) which was followed by a cry of pain as he fell over onto Wheelie. "Primus! That didn't go as well as I had hoped." Sideswipe groaned while getting up.

Wheelie whimpered a bit and groaned underneath him. "I don't think I can feel my legs...or arms...or head..." he said dizzily. Wheelie clambered back up onto his feet, a little woozy. "That didn't go so well...maybe I should give it another try?" he asked Sideswipe.

"Yeah, I would." Sideswipe smiled before lending a hand to help Wheelie up.

Wheelie got back onto his feet and sighed. "All right, let's try it again..." he said, though he didn't look all that more confident about giving it another try.

"Hey, look on the bright side; at least Sentinel isn't out here." Sideswipe glanced over at Prism before lowering his voice. "She might be bossy, but at least she's not tearing us down the way he does."

Wheelie rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah...I guess that's true. I like her more than him." Wheelie took another defensive stance. "Oh...okay...I'm ready to give it another try."

Sideswipe ran toward Wheelie and took a swing at him.

Wheelie felt fear at first, but this time he concentrated a bit more and managed to side-step the attack, and kicked his foot into Sideswipe's side.

Sideswipe felt the impact and staggered a bit.

Wheelie opened one eye from where he was wincing, and saw Sideswipe stagger a bit. "I...I did it...?"

"Yep, afraid so." Sideswipe said, catching himself and pulling himself back up.

Prism looked at Sunstreaker and grabbed his hand, pulling him back onto his feet. "Now it's your turn. I'm going to take a hit at you, and you can try using a defensive attack on me."

"Any rules that say I can't use a shield?" Sunstreaker smirked playfully before positioning himself in a defensive pose.

Prism looked at him sternly. "Shields are a good thing to have in battle, but when it comes down to the barebones of a fight, your own arms and legs are the best weapons and defense. Let's keep weapons and gadgets out of it for now."

"Yeesh..." Sunstreaker breathed before standing defensively again. _I can see now she can't take a joke._ He thought.

Prism looked at him. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah, I'm ready." Sunstreaker snorted, preparing himself for the attack.

Prism wrenched back her fist and threw a swift punch at Sunstreaker's face without giving any verbal warning.

Sunstreaker fell back in stunned silence, his body hitting the ground before he knew what had happened. Once the dust had settled, he looked up at Prism, his face throbbing in pain. "WHAT was that for?!?!?"

"You were supposed to turn my attack against me you idiot..." Prism said apathetically down towards him. "We just went over that, remember?! You're so wrapped in your own thoughts and cocky attitude you aren't paying attention! Do you think that the Decepticons are going to warn you when they attack? Get back on your feet and try again," she spat down at him.

Sunstreaker blushed (though he tried his best to hide it) as he got to his feet.

Prism waited for him to get back onto his feet. "Okay, are you really ready this time?" she said, sharply.

"Yes, I'm really ready this time." Sunstreaker replied, preparing himself for the next attack.

"All right." Prism, however, this time shot her knee up into the air and delivered a sharp front kick towards his midsection.

Sunstreaker quickly grabbed onto Prism's leg and twisted her off her remaining foot and around, pinning her to the ground.

Prism grunted a bit as she landed on the ground, using her arm and elbow to shield her head from hitting the ground, the toes of her boots dug into the ground. She smirked a bit. "Much better."

"Glad you approve." Sunstreaker said.

Prism got up from under him and brushed herself off. "You just need to pay better attention. It's like I said; the Decepticons aren't going to announce when they plan to attack. When you're at war, you have to be prepared for an attack at any time."

"Oh, I'll be prepared, alright. I just can't wait until I get to beat the slag out of something." Sunstreaker grunted, stepping back.

"You'll get your chance eventually young one, but first you need to be trained thoroughly in the arts of all kinds of combat. It might seem like simply rushing in and pounding the crap out of everything in sight right now, but war is a lot more complex than you could ever imagine," Prism said. "You still have a lot to learn before you'll be ready to fight, but you'll get there, so long as you persist."

Sunstreaker said nothing.

"All right! All of you take a breather. I'm going to go to Headquarters and get your lunches; you may feel free to converse and walk about until I get back, but don't leave the training field," Prism said, turning and departing.

Reverberate sighed. The afternoon sky overhead was starting to darken a bit; night was still a ways off but coming. "I guess this is as good a time as any to call my friends and see how they're doing."

"I'd hate to think what would happen if one of us _did_ leave the training field." Sunstreaker said, walking up beside Sideswipe.

"I'm definitely not going to try that and find out," Wheelie said, a bit meekly.

"Prism isn't so bad," Reverberate said. "Besides, she's better than Sentinel. Least she's not a jerk like him, just strict. Though I should probably give my friends some fair warning that she's going to be heading to Earth tonight to observe them. I'm willing to bet that was Sentinel's idea."

"Just like Sentinel—sending out spies." Sunstreaker shook his head.

"I wouldn't think of her so much as a spy...more like a babysitter, at least in Sentinel's mind," Reverberate pulled out his intercom. "I'll be back in a bit."  
He walked off and found a quiet spot where he sat down, and turned on the intercom. "Hello?" he said into it, hoping that someone was either nearby or manning the surveillance panel in the Autobot base.

Ratchet looked up at the screen.

Reverberate squinted; the screen was still fuzzy at it came in to the base's transmission. "That you grandpa?"

"You need your optics checked, kid?"

"Sorry, the reception is terrible," Reverberate said. He smiled a bit. The image became clearer after a few seconds. "How're you doing old man?"

Ratchet scowled a bit at the last statement. "I'm fine. How're they treatin' you?"

"I'm okay. We're being trained today by an Elite Guard apprentice named Prism; she's pretty tough, but nowhere near as annoying as Sentinel at least," he reported, scratching his auditory sensor nonchalantly. "Which reminds me, I wanted to give you all fair warning. The Elite Guard is sending her to Earth tonight to keep an eye on all of you. I'm sure Sentinel's the one who ordered it; probably looking for whatever excuse he can to turn Ultra Magnus against all of you. Prism doesn't seem as shallow as him though; just watch out. She's kind of bossy and cocky," he sighed. "She's training us pretty hard. I don't mind it, but she doesn't seem to have much confidence in the lot of us."

Ratchet straightened up from what he was doing. "Coming to keep an eye on us? What do we look like?—a bunch of sparklings?"

"Hey, don't get mad at me! Not much I can do about it. But I guess it's Sentinel's way of saying that he's watching you, just...not personally. I'm not sure how loyal Prism is to him, but you might want to be careful," he said quietly. "She doesn't seem entirely too impressed with any of you already, but then again, she's training under Sentinel, so he's probably convinced her you're not worth her time. I think you'll need to prove what she's thought about you wrong."

"I'm not mad at you," Ratchet set down his tools, "I'm mad at Sentinel. Ultra Magnus allowed us to stay here. I don't see why it should be any of Sentinel's concern." he sighed. "Prime isn't gonna like this."

"I'm sure he won't. But there's not much choice in the matter. Just don't get mad at Prism either; she's just under orders. She really isn't too bad, though she woke us up rather violently this morning..." he yawned. "My ears are still hurting from that. How have the others been holding up?"

"Fine—they're doing fine,"

"Just figured I'd give you some warning while I was thinking about it," he sighed. "Anyways, I'm sure you're busy..."

"Thanks, we'll be sure to watch out."

Reverberate smiled a bit, though it was twinged with sadness. "I...I do miss all of you..." he said, quietly. "You guys are the only family I've ever had. I can't even think of what...will happen if they won't allow me to go back..."

Ratchet smiled. "We miss you too."

Reverberate smirked a bit. "Yeah right, I'm sure Bulkhead and Bumblebee are already dividing up my stuff-"

His intercom signal suddenly malfunctioned a bit. Ratchet's image scrambled for a moment and he tapped his receiver. "Huh...?"

_"There's no such thing as family..."_

Reverberate's signal became clear again. "What was that? Did you say something?" he said, tapping his receiver. "I think I got some interference. Maybe my wires got crossed with someone else's."

Ratchet looked puzzled. "Is everything okay? Reverberate?"

Reverberate rubbed his forehead. "Not feeling great right now. I think my signal's dying. I'll try and call back tomorrow morning okay?" he said. He suddenly felt weary. "We still have a little more training and then it's rest time. Get some sleep yourself Ratchet," he said, before turning off the intercom. "That was so weird...I could have sworn I heard someone else speak..."

"Reverberate?" Sideswipe's hand touched the smaller bot's shoulder.

Reverberate jumped a bit. "Oh, Sideswipe, it's you..." he breathed a sigh of relief. "What's up? Are we starting to train again?"

"Of course we are! We're just waiting on you," Prism said, standing nearby with the others. "You've been jabbering to your friends long enough. We're going to practice hand to hand combat a bit longer and then I'm going to show you to your rooms so you can recharge for the night."

"What's wrong, Rev? You look like you saw Megatron himself." Sideswipe's voice was hinted with concern.

"It's...it's nothing. Just a little homesick is all," Reverberate said, brushing it off. But there was a lingering sensation in him, almost like a dull pain in his stomach. "I'll be fine; it's nothing a little getting beat by the rest of ya'll won't cure."


	5. Blamed

By the evening, Reverberate was indeed feeling beaten. "That Prism knows how to kill your spark through manual labor and combat..."

"I think I can feel each individual circuit throbbing..." Wheelie winced.

"Oh stop being such babies," Prism said as she walked down the hallway ahead of them and showing them where each of them was to stay. "The Lambo brothers will be sharing a larger room, the rest of you get your own."

Reverberate yawned and stretched, scratching his behind in a true teenage-boy fashion. "Sleep doesn't sound half-bad right now..."

Rim Shot remained silent and followed the rest, occasionally glancing at Reverberate and the rest of the bots in turn. The shy mech's face plates were contorted into a serious expression, as if—as if he sensed something no one else around him knew about. The halls they walked down were filled with the loud laughter and jeering of the twins, who continued to talk about the day's events and took playful swings at each other's heads.

Reverberate went into his own room and dozed off the second he hit the bed; he didn't even bother to hook up the recharger machine to himself before he dozed off. Wheelie had more trouble getting to sleep. His trauma had made him a chronic insomniac and he paced for a while before finally settling down on his bed, though the sleep he found was restless. At the very least, the sounds of the twins next door gave him some comfort that he wasn't alone anymore, and tomorrow he could stay close by Reverberate and Rimshot again. He felt the most secure around them, anyways.

Wheelie wasn't the only one who couldn't sleep. Out in the hallway, Rim Shot restlessly walked up and down, his feet making soft clinking sounds on the floor. He jumped at hearing a fairly loud 'thud' come from the twins' quarters, which was quickly followed by laughing.

Wheelie fell asleep not long after he heard Rimshot finally return to his room, though it was late into the night. He wondered if perhaps the other young bot had some sort of terrible thing happen to him just as he did, the way he acted. He seemed so fearful of everything.

Reverberate awoke the next morning half hanging from his bed, his dreadlocks on the floor. He awoke to a rapid thudding against his wall. At first, he thought it might be the recharger vibrating against the metal, but then suddenly he heard a panicked cry.

"Reverberate, help! I can't get my door open!" Wheelie was shouting. Reverberate sleepily pushed himself up to his feet. "Oh Wheelie...I'm sure it's just stuck..." he said tiredly. He went to push open his own door to go and check...but it wouldn't open either. He paused, then pushed again and pressed the activation buttons. Nothing happened. "Wha...what's going on?"

"They...someone said in the corridor, while they were running by...that someone was attacked last night..." Wheelie said fearfully in the other room. He sounded like he was on the verge of tears. "Not someone here, but a few levels up, one of the Elite guard trainees..."

Reverberate gasped. "It wasn't Prism was it?"

"No...I think she left last night..." he sobbed a bit. "But...what's going on? How could someone be attacked here, in the Autobot base? How?" he said, a bit frantic.

Reverberate just looked confused, and a bit frightened.

"Calm down Wheelie. I'm...I'm sure we're just locked in our rooms right now for our own safety..." Reverberate said, though he was starting to feel afraid. "It's in lockdown right now, in case...whoever did it is still around."

Wheelie just let out a frightened cry and appeared to retreat into his room; Reverberate couldn't hear him anymore.

"So what are we supposed to do?" Sideswipe's voice came from the other side of Wheelie's room. "You can't expect me to stay in here with Sunstreaker all day. I mean, seriously... that would be torture."  
A sharp, swift 'clank' followed Sideswipe's words.

"I don't think we have much choice..." Reverberate admitted. He looked to the other wall of his room.

"Rimshot? Are you awake?" The other bot had been strangely silent amongst the others in their panic and disdain. "Is something wrong?"

He looked down at his hand and noticed it was moist with something. It smelled like Energon. "Gargh, stupid recharger was leaking..."

"I—I'm awake," Rim Shot called back.

"Are you okay?" Reverberate called out, rubbing his wet hand off on the side of the bed carelessly. "Did you hear about the attack? Wheelie said an Elite guard trainee was assaulted last night so we're in lockdown right now."

"Yeah, I heard..." Silence followed for a few minutes before the sound of Rim Shot's fists could be heard pounding the inside wall. "I should have warned them!!! I should have warned them!!!" Rim Shot's voice sounded hysterical.

Reverberate gasped and was startled for a moment when he heard the pounding. "Rimshot, what's wrong?! Are you all right?! What do you mean you should have warned them?"

Silence.... "Th—there's something you don't know about me." Rim Shot struggled to get the words out as if he were embarrassed. "I—I'm telepathic. I'm not the greatest at it—I'm still trying to gain control over it. I'll explain later, though. Right now is what matters most. Last night I sensed something... something bad. I couldn't make out what it was. There were too many voices clouding my processor. But ever since we ended our training yesterday, I couldn't shake the feeling that something horrible was going to take place. It's all my fault. I should have warned them..."

"You're telepathic...?" Reverberate looked interested, but not surprised. Rimshot seemed the sort of intuitive sort that could have such an ability. That explained why he was so quiet and distracted constantly. "But you couldn't have known what would happen, besides Sentinel would have been too much of a jerk to actually listen, anyways..." he muttered. "But...do you have any sense who might have done it? Like do you have visions of it happening or something?"

"No visions yet. Just voices—lots and lots of voices. I hear thoughts and at times I sense feelings. Last night I sensed bad feelings coming from somewhere—somewhere close to me. No, I didn't sense who might have done it. Sorry." Rim Shot paused. "Reverberate? Please don't tell anyone about my… telepathy. No one knows, except me… and now you."

"Don't worry; I won't tell anyone," Reverberate said reassuringly, with a small smile, though Rimshot couldn't see it. "And voices...what voice did you hear that made you feel like something was wrong? What did 'it' say? If you can tell anything from what you sensed it might help find out who did this..."

"I didn't hear any voice. I only sensed the feeling. Sometimes it works that way."

"Oh, okay. Well if something comes to you that you remember, just tell me, okay? We'll figure out something. For now all we can do is...wait. See what happens. I'm sure Ultra Magnus knows how to handle this situation. I'm worried about Wheelie though, he's really afraid."

Reverberate looked down at his hands to make sure the moisture was gone. He winced a bit though; there was strange blackish fluid coated on his fingers that looked like motor oil. He hoped he hadn't sprung a leak himself during the night. "Blech. I really need to do a check maintenance on myself soon."

"Something wrong?" Rim Shot asked.

"Huh? Not much...just this morning I woke up coated in residual Energon fluid and motor oil, I think something internally is leaking on me is all." He started to look through his circuitry carefully, opening his abdominal panel and looking at the containers for his energy sources, but there was nothing wrong that he could find.

"Do you think they'll let us out of here soon?" Wheelie's small voice came from his room, though it sounded more like he was talking to the twins.

"I hope so," Sideswipe answered, "I'm getting bored."  
"Eh, it's probably Sentinel's idea. He's probably laughing right now at the thought of us being locked up like animals." Sunstreaker added.

"I don't think so, I heard him and Jazz run by earlier and they both sounded scared," Wheelie said. "Or at least nervous about whatever's going on."

Reverberate started feeling nervous and contemplative. Nothing was wrong with his internal drives or functions, yet he was coated with large amounts of fuel. How could that have happened? He started to feel a pang of fear swell in his lower abdomen, like a stronger form of the sensation he'd gotten the day before, when he'd heard that strange voice over the intercom.

At that moment footsteps and voices were heard outside in the hallway--the familiar voices of Jazz and Sentinel.

"Have you heard anythin' yet?" Jazz asked Sentinel, "What's goin' on up there?"

Reverberate and Wheelie were quiet, audio receptors pressed against their doors to listen.

Sentinel scowled a bit, though he wasn't his usual annoyance. For once he actually looked genuinely concerned. "We're not sure yet. It's like nothing I've seen before," he said. "My trainee Vicegrip was a very strong student who excelled at self-defense, but when we found him this morning...he wouldn't come out of a coma. His entire chest panel's been torn apart like something just...tore into him and guzzled on his energon and oil fuel cells. We had to have him transported to the hospital wing and he hasn't woken up yet, as far as I've been informed..."

Jazz shook his head in pity. "So how long are we going to keep everyone locked up?"

Sentinel clenched his teeth. "Until I find the soon to be sorry bot that did it," he spat. "There was no forced entry, no alarms set off, nothing to suggest it was a Decepticon or enemy that infiltrated the base, which means it was done from the inside. I'm not keeping those boys locked up to protect them Jazz; I think one of them did it, and I think I have a good clue which one it was."

Reverberate gasped and drew back away from his door. He started to feverishly wipe off his soiled hands on the sides of the machine.

"Reverberate," Rim Shot nervously whispered the best he could through the wall, "He means you. Primus knows I try not to get into his head when he's around, but I can't help it now."

"I ventured a guess..." Reverberate said, nervously.

Sentinel, however, didn't enter his room. He spoke more quietly to Jazz. "The security cameras were taken out last night so we don't know who did it, but I know that little bug was the culprit. The gashes and way my student was attacked was done in a very specific way...the way old Decepticon viruses used to attack Autobots when they were asleep or injured. Just sucked 'em dry and left them to go offline."

Jazz looked worried. "Nah, it can' be. Not tha lil' guy. How are you gonna prove it?"

"Just give me time. We need to wait until Vicegrip is stable until we can investigate his wounds more. You can let out the little brats for a meal though, they won't do much good if they starve to death in their rooms..." Sentinel said, departing stormily.

Jazz shook his head and walked toward a keypad located on the farthest wall and punched a few numbers. He then walked to Wheelie's door. "Al'right, everyone," he announced as he entered the room, "You're free for now."

Wheelie's head poked out from under his bed. "Is...is it safe for us to come out? R-really?"

Reverberate tried to keep his composure and walked out of his room as casually as someone as nervous as he was could.


	6. Prism Arrives

The twins came out of their room, glad to be let loose. Rim Shot followed shortly after, walking rather slowly, all sensors on high alert for anything unusual.

"Thank Primus!" Sideswipe breathed, walking to the doorway of Wheelie's room. The corridor was eerily quiet; the other trainees were all still in their rooms, though not by force.

"Wha...what are we supposed to do if whoever did it hasn't left the base yet?" Wheelie said fearfully to Jazz.

"Beats me," Jazz shrugged, "Sentinel will have to decide that, unfortunately. As much as I dislike it, he's the head honcho around here. An' right now, he's got this crazy idea that tha lil' guy did it. Him," Jazz pointed at Reverberate, who just stepped into the room, Rim Shot following close behind.

**In the meantime, back on earth**

Sari lowered her binoculars down and yawned. "I wish Reverberate had been more specific as to when that visitor lady is supposed to get here. We've been looking for her for hooours..."

Bulkhead shrugged. "I dunno, maybe they got held up by something." He was perched beside where Sari was standing outside the Autobot base, holding a pair of binoculars. Unfortunately they were human-sized, so they didn't even allow him to see through them even through a single optic. He tapped them as though they were broken.

"How can you see anything with these?" said Bumblebee, looking through the wrong end of his pair of binoculars. "Everything's so far away."

Sari sighed and turned the binoculars around. "That...might be why." She resumed looking through her own, when suddenly she saw something substantial move in the sky up above. As she focused a bit more, a ship became visible through the clouds. "There it is!" she said, watching it come closer. "Go and tell the others...though..." she paused and lowered the binoculars, the ship now close enough that she didn't need them. "Why doesn't it look like it's landing...?"

"I don't think it is..." Bulkhead said, just as confused.

As the ship neared their base, a lower panel suddenly opened, and Prism, unhesitant, suddenly jumped out of the space and started to plummet.

"That... does not look good..." said Bumblebee.

Sari gasped and nearly fell backwards. "Why did she jump out?! She's going to fall and crash land into the ground!" she half-shouted.

But suddenly Prism leaned forward and her wings unwrapped themselves from her form and spread out, and caught the wind. She immediately darted back up into the air and began to slowly descend towards the base, relying on sheer wind speed.

Bulkhead breathed a sigh of relief. "Yeesh...there's so few aerial Autobots I didn' even think of that..."

"So she's coming to watch over us?" Bumblebee kept his optics on Prism.

"That's the gist of what Reverberate said, it's mostly observation stuff though. He said to be careful, he told Ratchet she's been training under Sentinel. I'm going to go inside and get Optimus and the others." Sari turned and scampered back inside.

Bulkhead watched her descend as well. "Ya know...jus' because Sentinel's her teacher doesn't mean she'll be a jerk like him. I mean...you and I were trained by Sentinel too, ya know?"

"Yeah!" Bumblebee started forward toward where Prism was landing, "How bad can she be?"

Prism eventually retracted her wings in and the thrusters on the bottoms of her feet switched on, taking over slowing her descent. She slowly landed only a short distance from the base. She looked up towards Bumblebee and Bulkhead as they approached, though she said nothing.

"H-hey...you must be Prism?" Bulkhead said.

"That's right. I take it I'm in the right place unless Detroit is crawling with Autobot stations," Prism said, her voice holding a hint of joking but not a whole lot. She looked very serious.

Bumblebee, grinning, extended an outstretched hand to her, "Hi! I'm Bumblebee!"

"And I'm Headbulk...I mean Bulkhead..." Bulkhead said a bit bashfully, scratching a bit shyly at his face for his blunder. Prism smiled slightly and chuckled a bit.

Prism looked at Bumblebee's hand a second, but then took it and shook. For her size, she had a surprisingly firm and strong handshake. "I'm Prism. It's nice to meet you."

"The others should be along any minute." Bumblebee grinned harder, secretly trying to pry Prism's hand away from his.

"Oh, sorry," Prism said, releasing his hand. "Guess I'm a bit tense. It was a long flight to get here and I'm a little nervous. I've never been to anywhere else besides Cybertron and its moons before."

"S'ok," Bumblebee cringed.

Bulkhead still looked a bit shy. Prism smirked a bit at him. "Hey, don't look so glum, I don't bite."

"Phew, looks like she landed okay..." Sari said with a sigh of relief from Optimus's shoulder.

"You must be Prism," Optimus said with a friendly smile. "I'm Optimus Prime."

Prism's smile seemed to fade a little, but it wasn't noticeable. She shook his hand. "That's right, it's a pleasure to meet you."

Prowl and Ratchet came up behind Prime and silently stared in Prism's direction. Prism heard them approach and turned to glimpse them, hands on her hips.

"Oh, this is Ratchet and Prowl," Optimus said. "You two, this is Prism." Sari just watched quietly; she figured she could introduce herself once they were done conversing.

Prism looked at them both. "Heh, no need to look so serious boys. Though...you both look familiar. I know you served as a medic in the war," she said to Ratchet. "And I think I started at the academy a little after you did," she said to Prowl.

"Yeh, I did." Ratchet slowly got out.

"Now he's just a grumpy ol' bot who spends his time making younger bots' lives miserable." Bumblebee cheerily blurted out before Ratchet administered a sharp smack to the back of his head.  
"Ow!"

Prism chuckled a bit. "Yeah, I thought so. I remember seeing you during the war, I was just a kid then myself, but helped rescue me and some others from my village after the Decepticons attacked it." She looked to Prowl. "It's nice to see you graduated from the academy, although I thought you were pursuing joining the Elite Guard. How did you end up out here?"

Bulkhead looked at Sari shyly. "Do...you think it's obvious I think she's kinda...pretty...?"  
Sari rolled her eyes a bit. "Just a little Bulkhead..."

Prowl smiled a bit, "It's... a long story."

"Well, sometimes paths change. I'm still hoping to join the Elite Guard, though the test is still months off," she sighed. "Listen, I know you're probably all thinking I'm just here to babysit, but Sentinel didn't send me here. Ultra Magnus did, and it wasn't to be a pest, he just wants an extra set of eyes because of the Decepticon activity is all, and he figured this could qualify as part of my training in diplomacy to travel so far from home."

Prism suddenly noticed Sari on Optimus's shoulder. "You have something on your shoulder..." she peered a bit more. "Is that a human? Oh yeah...Reverberate mentioned there was one that stayed here with you...Sara right?"

"Sari..." Sari said, crossing her arms.

"Sorry kid, I'm not the best with names at times," Prism said.

Ratchet's hard expression drooped at Prism's words.

Prism was still looking at Sari. "Huh...I thought humans were...bigger for some reason..."

Optimus smiled. "Heh, well looking at pictures and simulators can throw you off."

"Is Reverberate doing okay?" Sari asked quietly.

"As far as I could tell, yeah. He's small but strong, and he has a lot of tricks to make up for his size. I think he'll be needing it, too..." she said, scratching the side of her head.  
"Why do you say that...?" Bulkhead asked.

"Well...I didn't want to concern all of you, but...there was an attack at the central base last night. One of my training comrades was found this morning in a coma," she said, quietly. "We're still not sure who did it, but that's why I came late. We had to make a stop to check the ship and make sure the attacker hadn't stowed away on board."

"A coma...?" Sari said, looking worried.

"Yeah...it looked really weird. His chest panel had been torn up and his energon and oil vats were sucked dry, like something leeched off of him. We're not sure what to make of it right now."

Ratchet shifted uneasily as he continued to listen silently to the conversation.

Bulkhead looked worried too. "R-really...that...that is weird. Why don't I show you where yer stayin' while you're with us?" he said. Prism smiled. "All right, sounds good...I think I need to take a short recharging rest after such a long trip." She followed him inside.

Sari looked extremely worried. "Drained his energon and oil..." she said, quietly. "Isn't that what...what Reverberate said viruses do to injured Autobots..." she paled a bit.

"Yes," Ratchet turned to watch Prism walk toward the base with Bulkhead, "But he didn't have to say it for me to know. I saw and treated injuries like that durin' the war. Not a pretty sight, believe me. I jus' can't understand it, though. Why now? What triggered him?"

"If you ask me, it sounds a little... fishy." Prowl walked up beside Optimus. "It might not be him."

"Don't be silly. What else would attack in that way?" Ratchet turned to Prowl.

"Good question." Prowl nodded slowly.

Sari looked sad. "But Reverberate told me he could control his viral tendencies..."

Prime looked worried as well. "He was very stressed when he left about the prospect of not being able to return, or possibly being imprisoned on the grounds of war crimes...I think perhaps his viral side might be taking control when he's unable to fight it, like when he's asleep..."

"But I just got through talking with him not too long ago. He seemed fine." said Ratchet.

"Did it ever occur to you maybe he's just been putting on a front so we wouldn't be worried though?" Optimus said. "You're sure nothing strange happened when you were talking to him?"

Ratchet paused a moment. "Well, there was a glitch in his transmission once. He was having trouble gettin' through to earth."

"Did it just seem like a normal glitch?" Optimus said. "Just try and think, even something small might tell us if his viral side is emerging or not..."

Ratchet shrugged, "Can't say. He jus' said he had some kind of interference on his side. Nothing on my side seemed out of the ordinary except that his transmission fizzled just a bit—nothin' too strange. Just the usual static common when transmissions are weak. He did say he wasn't feelin' all that great and that his signal was dyin'. That's the last I've heard from him."

Optimus looked a bit more worried. "Maybe we should try to contact him..."

"Might not be the worst time," Bulkhead said as he returned. "Prism all but passed out when she got to 'er room, she won't hear anythin'."

"Worth a try," Ratchet sighed, "He was supposed to call again today anyway."

Optimus nodded, heading back inside with the others. He went over to the comlink with Sari still perched on his shoulder and began to type in the code to reach Reverberate. "It'll be late evening on Cybertron right now; he might already be resting after the mayhem today. But I just want to make sure he's all right."

The screen did click on, but there was little movement. The screen was sideways and facing a wall. "I think he's asleep..." Sari said quietly. "But if all of you want to go get some rest, I'll stay up and keep an eye on him." She said. "I don't have school tomorrow anyways so dad said I could spend the night."

"If anything happens, let me know." Ratchet said.

"Yes, if you see something strange Sari, go and get Ratchet, all right?" Optimus said. Sari nodded and sat down in a small office chair the Autobots had put there for her, and started to watch as the others went to recharge.


	7. IMVi

For a long while, nothing happened. Sari had to keep herself from dozing off. Watching someone else sleep was like torture. She could hear Reverberate's mechanized snoring. But suddenly the sound dwindled off and she opened her eyes. Something seemed a bit...off. As she watched, the edges around the intercom screen started to turn a faint, glimmering crimson color and Reverberate started to move rather stiffly. She gasped, getting up and going to Ratchet's room. "Ratchet, Ratchet, wake up! Something weird is happening..." she said, banging on his door.

The door immediately flew open and Ratchet came out into the hallway, nearly running over Sari. Without a word, he scooped her up in his hands and headed to the computer. He and Sari stared at the screen. They stared at the same wall they saw earlier, but someone was screaming in the distant and tapping on the wall opposite.

"Reverberate?" Rim Shot's panicked, muffled voice came, though Ratchet and Sari had no clue who it was, "Are you alright? Reverberate? Stay right there, Rev, I'm coming over."  
Ratchet turned a puzzled and confused look to Sari.

Sari looked just as confused as him.

Reverberate suddenly let out a strange sound; it sounded like a gasp that turned into a glottal hiss and his arm suddenly stiffened and shook. It was as though he were being choked by something that wasn't there.

Sari took in a long, horrified breath.

A door hissed open in Reverberate's room at that moment. "Reverberate? Ahhhhgggh!" The green and white mech the screen now showed was down on his knees and grasping his head as if he were in pain.

Reverberate let out another airy cry of what appeared to be pain as his body recoiled and curled into itself at swift intervals. In the flashes of his face that came, Sari could slowly see IMVi's features appearing. His optics turned red and pupil-less and a crimson redness appeared over him. Sometimes he hacked and struggled to respirate as though, even unconsciously, Reverberate was trying to resist the change.

Sari looked terrified and stepped back. "Wha...what do we do Ratchet?" she whimpered.

"Go get Prism and Prime," Ratchet said, not taking his optics off the screen, "Hurry."

Ratchet's fingers flew over the keypad in front of him before he turned to look up again. "Reverberate, can you hear me?"

There was a moment of only the sounds of internal struggle before Reverberate's weak, horrified voice came. "Ratchet...?" he said. He sounded still like something was strangling him. "Ratchet...I can't...I can't...keep...control...." He said. He seemed to notice, however, Rimshot in the doorway. "Rimshot, get out...of...of here!" he shouted.

"I—I can't..." Rim Shot replied, "Wheelie!! Sideswipe! Sunstreaker!" he called before gasping.

Wheelie snorted and woke up. "Huhwha?" he said. He suddenly heard a strange commotion coming from next door and raced over. He got about as far as Rimshot's fallen form. "Wha...what's happening?!"

Reverberate's cries suddenly became quiet, and he stopped moving so erratically.

The Lambos came rushing up behind Wheelie, Sideswipe struggling to keep his balance.

"What's going on?" Sunstreaker asked.

"S-something's wrong with Reverberate, and Rimshot..." Wheelie said weakly, looking ready to pass out himself.

"Who's Reverberate..." the form in the room hissed. IMVi hoisted himself up on the platform that Reverberate slept on.

"Primus..." Ratchet breathed. "Reverberate!" he shouted.

IMVi giggled evilly and raised his arm intercom and smirked at Ratchet and Sari. "Oh, you're looking for the brat? He's um...busy right now. Can I take a message?" the virus hissed coyly, slinging his wiry legs over the side of the bed.

Wheelie looked like he was about to wet himself as he took a step back. "Wha...what is that thing...?"

"I dunno, but I'm not about to find out." Sunstreaker said, backing up and away.  
"You glitch head! We can't just run off and leave them here." Sideswipe jerked his arm out of Sunstreaker's hand. "That's Reverberate, remember?"

"One problem, bro, that's NOT the way I remembered him!"

Rim Shot struggled. _Get out of my head. _He mentally told the virus. _And give us our friend back!_

_"You have an interesting little head here..."_ IMVi hissed, though it was a mental ridicule for Rimshot. _"You're the one who entered me first though, trying to help your little friend...but this isn't his body. It's mine. And I'm getting very hungry again; it's time to find someone else to snack on..."_

_Not if I stop you first._ Rim Shot got up and ran to lock the door to Reverberate's room, then turned quickly and charged towards the smaller bot, knocking him down to the ground. The twins and Wheelie looking on in wonder.

IMVi seemed entirely unafraid as Rimshot attacked him; he didn't even seem to be fighting back...yet. "Foolish little boy. You might think of me as your little friend, but I have lived for millions of years feasting on the life source of your kind. Do you think you're going to contain me? You've just ensured me another meal..." IMVi said, showing Rimshot his sharp, animal-like teeth. "Looks like it's going to be you tonight." He suddenly drove a foot into his stomach and kicked Rimshot off of him. The move was so quick, if you'd blinked it would have already been over with.

Rim Shot fell backwards but quickly regained his footing. This time he kept his distance, but was still determined not to allow IMVi out of the room.

"I'm gonna go get Jazz and Sentinel," Sunstreaker said, turning. Sideswipe grabbed him by the shoulder.

"You can't! This is exactly what Sentinel wants! Go and get him, and Reverberate will be in big trouble."

"What do you suggest we do?"

"We'll have to deal with this ourselves and keep it our secret."

"And just HOW do you suggest we do that? I mean, look at him," Sunstreaker gestured to IMVi, "that's not exactly one of the training field holograms there."

Sideswipe thought.

"I'm so flattered that you boys are troubling yourself for my sake..." IMVi cackled with a crooked smirk. He was still on top of Rimshot and pinning him to the ground; since Rimshot was not much larger than him, it wasn't entirely too hard. IMVi raised one claw into the air and suddenly drove it down into Rimshot's chest panel, beginning to warp and tear the metal apart.

Wheelie let out a shout and clenched his mouth with his hands. "We have to do something or he's going to kill Rimshot!" the young bot screeched.

Sideswipe ran over to Rim Shot's side and gave IMVi a swift kick that sent him flying into the opposite wall. He then turned to help Rim Shot up and over to where Wheelie and Sunstreaker were waiting.

"We've gotta get out of here." he said, turning to look at IMVi getting back up.

IMVi let out a hack and then gripped his teeth together as they fled. But then he smirked. "Haaa, they think they can get away..." he said, laughing airily as he suddenly vanished into the wall, integrating himself into the machine systems lodged between the walls.

Sari came back to the main communication room, out of breath. Prism and Prime were right behind her. Both of them looked startled and out of breath as well when they arrived.  
"Ratchet, what's happening?" Prime said as he marched towards the main monitor.

"You'll never believe it." Ratchet didn't bother to take his optics off what he was doing. "Fortunately I recorded the whole transmission and am ready to play it back if you care to watch."

Prime sighed, his voice shaking ever so slightly, though other than that he kept his composure. "Fine, go ahead."

Wheelie ran as fast as he could, trailing behind the others. Sideswipe was carrying Rimshot. "What do we do guys?! We have to tell the others or he's going to kill us!"

"Jazz," Sunstreaker said, "We've gotta find Jazz. He's the only one we can trust. Sideswipe is right. If we bring Sentinel into this he'll have his proof for getting rid of Reverberate. And we can all clearly see that it's NOT Reverberate we're dealing with here. It might be his body, but there's something else speaking through it."

Wheelie nodded, though the young bot was horrified. "But what if Jazz says we have to tell Sentinel and Ultra Magnus? Then Reverberate will be executed, or at the very least imprisoned! What do we do if that happens?"

IMVi followed the batch of runaways from overhead, traveling through the security system.

"That's a chance we'll just have to take." Sideswipe said, shifting Rim Shot to his other shoulder. "It's clear we can't handle this on our own."

Sunstreaker nodded in agreement.

Optimus watched in horror at the replay of what happened. "Primus, IMVi really is still alive in there...the reformatting wasn't strong enough to eliminate his influence," he touched his forehead thoughtfully. "We need to do something to help, if we can."

"Is there any way to reach into Reverberate or IMVi's psyche from here?" Prism asked. "Perhaps there may be some way to delete IMVi from his mind, or at the very least suppress him until someone can get him help."

Ratchet shook his head sorrowfully, "I honestly have no idea how we can do somethin' like that from here. I would have to have Reverberate here to do anything that would help. As long as IMVi is controlling him, I doubt we could even send a transmission to him. He'd probably ignore it and disable it."

Optimus looked lost and contemplative. He wasn't sure what to do. "We should at least try, perhaps if we tried speaking to him it would reawaken Reverberate's personality within him."

Ratchet shrugged his shoulders. "We can try, but appears to me IMVi has buried Reverberate deep this time."

Optimus began rerouting the communication signal to try and tap into the intercom on IMVi's arm, even though he'd temporarily disabled it. "Reverberate was always closest to you Ratchet," Optimus said. "I think if any of us get through to him, it'll be you." Optimus looked back at the older bot with a pleading expression as he commenced reworking the computer.

"Fine," he sighed.

Optimus opened up the communication waves finally. "Reverberate, can you hear me?"  
IMVi paused up in the ventilation system where he was pursuing the others and looked down at the intercom blandly. "Optimus Prime..."

"That isn't your body anymore IMVi, Reverberate is our comrade and we're not about to let you take control of him..." Optimus seethed a bit. He felt so helpless in this situation that it was making him angry.

IMVi smirked a bit as he looked down into the screen. "No need to be so tense. I'm not vying for full control of the brat anymore. I just want to get him into enough trouble that the Autobot organization he so highly worships ends up putting him to death..." he hissed.

Sari clenched her fists and teeth sharply. "You're nothing but a terrible little brat!" she shouted at him.

"Ah, it's the little spitfire child. Sorry that Reverberate isn't around right now to make any of his pathetic attempts of flirtation with you, but here," IMVi blew a mocking kiss at her. Sari growled at him and stomped her foot in aggravation.

"That's enough, IMVi," Ratchet glared.

IMVi seemed to wince a bit and glared at Ratchet. "You can't tell me what to do, old man," IMVi sneered at him. "You and your comrades locked me away in my own body, and if you think I'm going to let that little brat Reverberate keep hold of it, you're dead wrong. I'd rather not exist anymore than have to live in his subconscious watching him serve your cause which I so direly tried to destroy..."

Ratchet stood unmoved by the words, the same scowl still crossing his face plates. "Oh, I can't tell you what to do, can I?"

"Last time I checked, you were standing in a ramshackle base thousands of light-years away..." IMVi said, sounding unthreatened as he dropped down into the corridor and walked after the young recruits he'd been chasing.

"We might be standin' in a ramshackle base, as you so kindly put it, thousands of light-years away, BUT it just so happens that I'm standin' right here talkin' with you! And if I could I would reach through this monitor screen and wrap my hands around that neck of yours and squeeze it so tight I would have to put your optic visor back on afterwards. And, Primus help me, I would be tempted to put it on upside down!" Ratchet leaned closer to the screen, his teeth starting to tighten.

IMVi seemed a bit unsettled by this and grimaced, but he clenched his teeth. "You can't frighten me old man! I might still be small but I left dozens of Autobots piled in the battlefields for you to tend to once I rendered their innards," he spat, angrily. But he seemed to be having some trouble acting cocky; he dragged his hand down his face as though struggling to maintain his control.

"You don't scare me either," Ratchet crossed his arms, "Believe me, I've seen scarier things in my lifetime. Some of which I don't even want to mention."

"You know, it doesn't matter if you stop me from doing what I came to do tonight," IMVi hissed. "Your 'beloved' Sentinel Prime will soon realize that Reverberate is harboring a Decepticon virus within himself and promptly _destroy him_."

A smirk crossed Ratchet's lips. "Is that so? Hmmm... So let me get this straight... You come out, get Reverberate in trouble with Sentinel Prime, Sentinel Prime destroys Reverberate and you along with him, and then.... let's see..."

IMVi suddenly paused, then made a face and grimaced. "Slag...didn't think about that... $#$%$#!!! Gargh! ...no matter, I'll simply find myself a new body..."

Ratchet turned an irritated glare to Optimus.

"IMVi, think rationally what you're doing. There isn't any time now for you to construct yourself a new body and there's a dire chance that both you and Reverberate could lose your lives..." Optimus said, his tone entirely serious. "You might believe that you deserve vengeance for what we did, but Reverberate could have never been created if there hadn't already been some goodness somewhere in your spark. If you would just listen to reason we could help you both!"

IMVi sneered, though he looked fearful now, like he was being cornered. "It's too late now. You Autobots crossed the line...I'll never have any respect shown to me as a Decepticon ever again because of all of you! It was bad enough that they used me like an errand boy for millennia and tried to throw me away, but now...now I'm just out to make you pay!" He shouted. Suddenly the comlink line started to die off.

Ratchet shook his head, "The thanks we get for trying to help."

Optimus sighed, but suddenly looked sternly at the screen. "It's a long shot, but...we have to try and get there and stop whatever might happen to Reverberate or IMVi. I don't believe Ultra Magnus would rush a judgment of our friend, but Sentinel indefinitely would...we have to at least try!"

"And just _how_ are we gonna do that?" Ratchet looked at Prime.

"I don't know..." Optimus said. Their ship was still...in total disrepair. But suddenly Prism gasped. "W-wait a minute...I have an emergency ship that the Elite Guard cruiser dropped off just outside the city! Granted it's small, it'll only fit two bots...but it's something, and it should have enough fuel to get back to Cybertron..."

"I guess that settles that." said Ratchet. "An' who gets to go?"

"I need to. Reverberate is my responsibility..." Optimus said. "If nothing else because I owe it to him to try and save him. He's done as much as he could for this team since he became an Autobot, I can't let him down." He looked at Ratchet. "IMVi might have his reservations, but he's still a threat, and you know viruses better than anyone from your time in the war Ratchet. You might be the only one who knows the method to keep him from attacking anyone else..."

Ratchet nodded.

"I want to go too!" Sari suddenly shrieked from down below. "Reverberate is my best friend, and I don't want him to get hurt!"

Optimus, however, didn't look so sure. "I don't think you can, Sari. Cybertron would be a dangerous place for a human, and to be honest I'm not sure the atmosphere could sustain you..."

"Prime's right," Ratchet looked down. "Cybertron is no place for an organic. Besides, I don't know what we're gonna be facing. IMVi is dangerous. If you got hurt... I dunno what we'd do."

Sari grimaced and sighed. Prism looked at them both. "Come on, we have to hurry if there's going to be any hope of you two getting there in time..." she said. Optimus nodded and followed after her with Ratchet.

Sari, however, looked back at the deadened screen. She then took off on her own without a word.


	8. Bug in the System

Prism led Optimus and Ratchet to the ship. It was indeed small, but decent enough to get them to Cybertron. "It's not the fanciest ship around, but it's fast. It should get you there quick if you use the hyper drives."

Optimus climbed inside and began to activate the controls. "This will do just fine. Thanks Prism," he said with a faint smile.

"Keep an eye on the kids for us." Ratchet smirked.

Prism smiled a bit. "Just keep that friend of yours safe, okay? I'll worry about your friends here for now."

Optimus set the ship to launch and it started on its way.

* * *

Wheelie slammed his small fists onto the door ahead of him. "Jazz! Jazz, wake up, please!" the young boy screamed pleadingly. Since he wasn't helping to carry Rimshot, he'd arrived to the older bot's room first.

The door slid open to reveal a groggy Jazz. He looked down at Wheelie. "Whoa, lil' dude. Simmer down. You wan' to wake up the whole base?"

Wheelie was out of breath and looked horrified. "You...you don't understand...! The virus...the one who attacked the trainee, it's...it's inside Reverberate and it's trying to suck us dry!" he shouted, flailing his arms.

Jazz grabbed onto Wheelie in hopes of calming him. "Whoa, whoa, wait. What?—In where? is going to suck you dry?"

Wheelie tried to speak a bit slower. "The virus...the thing that attacked Sentinel's trainee...is a virus named IMVi, who...who's the Decepticon that Reverberate used to be before he was reformatted! But he's taken over Reverberate now and he's trying...trying to kill us!"

"Decepticon?!?!" Jazz couldn't say anything else. "Where is he now?"

Wheelie gasped. "Down the hallway, behind the others...I think...I think the Autobots on Earth were trying to delay him by hacking into Reverberate's comlink, but...but there isn't much time! Come on!" Wheelie said, grabbing Jazz's hand and dragging him in the direction he'd come from.

IMVi hissed a bit as he literally slid down the hallway, his serpentine feet slithering along the metal ground so that he could glide over the surface. "I'm going to catch all of you and pluck your sparks out one by one!" he sneered.

_I knew I shoulda stayed in the recharge berth..._ Jazz thought to himself as Wheelie continued dragging him.

Wheelie suddenly ran headlong into the twins, who were carrying Rimshot along. He was thrown backwards and skidded down the corridor a short ways.

IMVi halted, then concealed himself behind the corner of the hallway and watched. "Hmmm..."

Sideswipe and Sunstreaker staggered before gaining their footing again. Sunstreaker uttered a few Cybertronian curses while Sideswipe struggled to keep Rim Shot over his shoulder.

"What happened??" Sideswipe yelled.

Wheelie was out of breath as he struggled back onto his own feet. Being of a much smaller stature, he'd nearly been thrown all the way back the way he'd came. "I...went...and got...Jazz..." he muttered, still out of breath.

IMVi clawed into the wall silently and vanished into the wiring that was behind the metal surface.

Sunstreaker checked himself over for any dents, flashing Wheelie a hard glare. He wanted to say something, but his brother interrupted him.

"Jazz, Jazz! You gotta help us! Rim Shot's been hurt and Reverberate's virus has come out and is chasing us down the hallway, and we've gotta hide. And..."

Jazz held up his hands for Sideswipe to stop. "Chill, man. Now, s'pose you tell me, sloooowly, what this is all about, from the beginning. And..." Jazz glanced at Rim Shot, "Is he hurt bad?"

Wheelie looked at Rim Shot fearfully. "We...we're not sure. IMVi hit him with an attack and he hasn't woken up since then..." the small bot said shakily.

Jazz motioned for everyone to follow him. "C'mon, I'll show you the way to the med bay. Then you can tell me what this is all about."

Wheelie followed behind the rest of them; he was shaky and worried horribly, but most of all for Reverberate. Was his friend still in there, at all? Or was IMVi all that was left?

Unbeknownst to them, IMVi was following close behind, using the wiring in the wall to travel along invisibly.

After traveling down what seemed like endless corridors, Jazz quickly turned a final corner and a pair of doors slid open, allowing him and the rest of the group inside. There were several medic bots on duty, one of which turned his optics towards Jazz and the rest that trailed behind him.

"Hey, Jazz," the medic greeted cheerfully. "Haven't seen you around here in awhile."

"We can greet later, Crowbar, right now we've got a serious situation." Jazz motioned to Sideswipe, who came up to the nearest table and carefully laid Rim Shot on it.

Wheelie looked at Rim Shot fearfully. "Do you...do you know how to fix someone who was hurt by...by a Decepticon virus...?" the smaller bot squeaked from down below.

Crowbar looked down, a bit stunned by the small voice... and the small bot that it had come out of. "Decepticon virus??" he glanced over Rim Shot, the medical assistant already starting to run tests and scans. "These are the same injuries the trainee had on him when he was brought in here..." the medic mused under his breath.

"That's because the same virus did it to him..." Wheelie said, softly. "Can you help him...?" he asked. He sounded sad and fearful.

Crowbar ran his hand over the exposed wires and energon in the middle of Rim Shot's chest. "Yes, I think I can. Might take me a few days, but he should be up and running again. From here, it doesn't look too serious. You can thank Primus the wounds aren't deep."

_"I can always make them deeper..."_ Wheelie cringed when he heard a strange voice resonate out from the walls around them and looked around frantically. "Wha...where is that coming from?!"

Jazz looked down at Wheelie. "What?"

"I...I can hear a voice from the walls..." Wheelie choked out. "I'm not sure...where it's coming from..." Wheelie said, looking around frantically. Given how malicious the voice was, he was surprised the others couldn't hear it. It seemed to come from everywhere. But his fear was interrupted suddenly when a door further down the corridor suddenly opened and slammed hard against the wall, and Sentinel suddenly stepped out of his recharge chamber, looking angrier than ever.

"What the heck is going on out here?!" he shouted, aggravated. He seemed to sense something was going down, since he had his shield with him. Jazz and Crowbar's presence alerted him that something was wrong.

"Oh, no," Jazz mumbled under his breath, "as if we don't have enough problems already."

Sentinel gave Jazz a look. "What's that supposed to mean? What's going on?!" he asked angrily.

"Sir," Jazz searched for words to say, "nothing... actually. Just a little accident."

Sentinel looked skeptical, especially when he glimpsed Crowbar holding Rim Shot. "A little accident? Another trainee's been attacked!" he said.

"Nothing, that can't be fixed." Sideswipe smiled, adding a slight laugh.

Sentinel still looked unconvinced. He suddenly looked at Crowbar. "What's wrong with him?" he said, indicating Rim Shot. "Because his injuries look awfully like the last cadet who was attacked..."

"Actually," Crowbar began, turning his attention to Rim Shot, "His injuries are the same. But they aren't as deep as the unfortunate cadet who was attacked earlier. My calculations state that he should be up and running again in no time, as soon as I can begin work on him."

Jazz let out a slight sigh of frustration. _Nice goin', Crowbar_ He thought.

Sentinel sighed a bit, but then his eyes narrowed a bit. "I see...and yet all this chaos is going on and I can't help but notice one of your trainees is gone, Jazz...noticeably the one that used to be a Decepticon..."

"I know what it looks like, but that doesn't mean anything. Tha lil' dude's probably just out taking a walk or... something." Jazz replied.

Sentinel grumbled a bit. "I'm sure that's what it is..." he said, sarcastically. "But if you have the situation under control, then fine. I'm still contacting Ultra Magnus however and letting him know there's been another attack."

"Fine with me,"

Sentinel turned and returned to his room.

Wheelie looked fearful. "Can any of you hear that voice...?" he said, his voice small and fearful. "It sounds like it's coming from everywhere, to me..."

"Thought he'd never leave," Sideswipe breathed, turning to Wheelie, "Hear it?? How do you think we can hear anything with Sentinel's voice clogging our audios?"

"I...I could still hear it..." Wheelie said meekly.

IMVi hovered overhead, then suddenly dropped down so he was inside of the wall just behind Wheelie.

"You were the only one who truly befriended Reverberate, even though he knew I was still inside of him...I think I'll spare you. But I still want the rest of their cores..." he hissed.

Wheelie yelped and jumped away from the wall.

Jazz looked at the wall and then back at Wheelie. "It's jus' a wall," he said. Sunstreaker, however, got up and walked over to said wall and stared at it for a minute.

"I think my brother's lost his processor." Sideswipe quipped.

Without another word, Sunstreaker suddenly whipped out his blaster and took several shots at the wall. Sideswipe, Jazz, Wheelie, Crowbar, and what other medical assistants and doctors were in the room all scrambled for cover.

"Primus!" Sideswipe shouted after Sunstreaker had stopped, "A little warning next time!"

Wheelie suddenly gapped. "No, he was right to do that, look!"

In the gapping hole left in the wall after the blows, IMVi could be seen materializing himself out of the wires. He was looking a bit peeved. "Heh, nice try...but I can just reconstruct myself out of other materials." He smirked at Sunstreaker.

Sunstreaker gritted his teeth plates and aimed his blaster at IMVi, "Ya little glitch... Make one more move and I'll fire again."

IMVi tilted his head to one side, and smirked. "Heheh, go right ahead little one..." he hissed. Before Sunstreaker got the chance, however, IMVi suddenly vanished into the mechanisms in the wall.

Wheelie looked at Crowbar, a bit frantically. "You were in the war, you said...how do you stop Decepticon viruses like him?! They have to have some kind of weakness!"

Crowbar stood and thought while a couple of the other medical officers worked on Rim Shot beside him. "Turning off power all over the base might work,"

"That way IMVi wouldn't have any electrical power to use..." Wheelie said, quietly. "Where's the manual shut off for the base?"

"There's a small power plant on the other side of the training field that holds the manual shut off, but only the ones who work there know the codes to unlock the door."

"Is there someone working over there now?" Jazz asked.

"Mmmm... should be. They always try to keep someone on duty at all hours."

Wheelie immediately turned and took off down the hallway, towards where Crowbar had indicated. "Just make sure Rim Shot's okay!" he shouted back.

"Wait, you can't expect to go off by yourself with that virus running loose!" one of the medics shouted after him.

"Don't worry, IMVi won't hurt me..." Wheelie said, almost grimly though, as though the virus's leniency towards him was more of a curse than a blessing. He wanted his real friend back.

"HEY!" Jazz shouted, "Tha medic's right, you aren't goin' out there without us."

"Yeah," Sideswipe folded his arms, "Or have you forgotten we're in this together?"

"If somethin' happens to you, Sentinel will bust my skid plate." Jazz continued, running up beside Wheelie.

Wheelie was panting a bit from running. "I'm the only one that won't get hurt if IMVi decides to attack! You're all at risk if you come with me..."

"Cool it there, lil' buddy. An' just how do you know that? You can't trust this thing." Jazz caught Wheelie by the arm and pulled him back as if he were a sparkling. "Uh uh, you forget I'm in charge here. Besides, they won't let you in by yourself. You're a new trainee."

Wheelie yelped as he was yanked back. "I...I don't care! I'd find a way in..." Wheelie said. He yelped again though, when IMVi suddenly dropped out of the ceiling and took off running away from them. "Shut down my electricity, eh? Like I'll allow that!"

"Oh yeah?" Jazz pulled Wheelie closer to him. "An' just how are you gonna do that?"

"I'll...I'll climb in through the vents if I need to!" he said. "It's my fault this happened...Reverberate wasn't feeling well before IMVi came out and I should have helped him...!"

"Hey, it wasn't your fault," Sideswipe smiled from behind Jazz, "but you can't break protocols. You enter that place through the vents and you'll have Sentinel on your back faster than IMVi can travel. And can you imagine what he would say?"

Wheelie yanked his arm away from Jazz. "Protocol?! I don't care about that! Decepticons don't play by any rules! Do you think IMVi's going to knock and have them let him into the electrical plant? By the time we get through being interrogated by the workers, he'll have already destroyed what chance we have of stopping him!"

* * *

At this moment, in the medical bay:

One of the medics aided the others in healing Rim Shot's wounds. Fortunately, it was superficial enough that they managed to patch him up rather swiftly. He started to wake back up. The medic smiled a bit. "Hey kid, feeling better now?"

Rim Shot fearfully pushed the medic bot away from him and fell off the examination table, scattering what equipment and instruments were within his reach. "S—Stay away from me," he stuttered. "W—Where am I? What happened? Where's Reverberate?"

"You're in the infirmary bay, kid..." the medic said. "And your little friend, well...he's not your little friend anymore. He's a virus..."

Rim Shot stood and gazed at the medic in front of him a few minutes before replying, "I'm aware of that, Retract," he said softly, "I must get to him. I think I can help."

* * *

Jazz sighed wearily and didn't bother to answer Wheelie. Instead he grabbed hold of Wheelie's arm again and pulled him along. "We're wastin' time. All of us are goin' and that's final. I don't want to hear anymore about it. If I have to, I'll contact Sentinel and Ultra Magnus and tell them what's going on. Sunstreaker, you have that blaster of yours ready. Sideswipe, use whatever weapons you have. An', Wheelie," Jazz peered down at the small bot, "me an' you are gonna have a small talk later."

Wheelie just looked up at him, with a childishly aggravated look on his face. He didn't enjoy being dragged around a whole lot. But he glimpsed back and saw Rim Shot heading towards them. "Hey, Rim Shot! You're okay!" He said, sounding relieved.

Rim Shot didn't seem to notice Wheelie as he ran up and stopped in front of Jazz, "Where is he? I must get to him."

"He's heading toward the power plant. Tha little runt overheard our plans to cut off the base's power so he took off that way." Jazz answered.  
Rim Shot quietly sighed, "Let's go."

_I'm fine, Wheelie. Don't worry about me. _Rim Shot telepathically told Wheelie.

Wheelie nodded towards Rim Shot, then suddenly pulled his arm free from Jazz and took off towards the plant, as quickly as his short little legs could take him. To make up for lacking in brute strength, he was surprisingly quick and agile.

"H-hey! Wait for me!" Retract yelled, following after them. "I'll come too! That way if someone gets hurt I can try and help!" the young medic said.

"This is turning into a major parade!" Jazz griped. "Might as well call in reinforcements... as much as I hate to." Jazz tapped his communicator to call Sentinel. "Sentinel? You there?"

"No, don't!" Wheelie yelped at him. "We don't need him yet, please! If he finds out about IMVi, he'll try and kill him, and we'll lose all chances of getting Reverberate back!" he pleaded. "Sentinel won't understand how all this is, you know how he acts...he'd rather just eliminate the threat and ask questions later..."

It was too late... Sentinel's voice roared over the com link. And Jazz cringed.

"What's going on now, Jazz?! There's been so much commotion that half the base is awake now!" Sentinel yelled into the comlink. Wheelie cringed, then looked up. They had reached the electrical plant. He looked for a way in frantically.

"Uh... Sentinel? Is that you? Why'd you contact me? Nothin' going on here. Jazz, out." Jazz broke off the transmission. "I'll probably lose my rank for that one."

Wheelie looked at the door. It was locked. But there was a vent over one of the barred windows and he started to climb the wall towards it. "We don't have time to wait for them to unlock everything!" D:  
"Yeesh, that kid's acting a little weird..." Retract said, scratching the side of his head, talking about Wheelie. The poor little bot seemed so anxious about the whole thing.

_Wheelie, don't._ Rim Shot secretly communicated with the child, _It's too dangerous. Let me handle this._

Wheelie looked down at Rim Shot with a wild gaze. Boy, did that power creep him out a bit. "I...I'll unlock the door from the inside..." Wheelie said, prying off the vent covering. "I promised Reverberate that I'd help him if something like this happened, I have to do _something!_" He slinkered into the little hole.

Retract gulped a bit. "He's in sooo much trouble..."

"Wait!" Rim Shot shouted.

Wheelie lumbered into the ventilation system, then dropped down into the corridor. He pressed the button to release all the locks on the entranceway, but then took off on his own. 'I have to find him...maybe I can try and get Reverberate to come back without having to fight IMVi...'

Retract suddenly heard the sound of something churning overhead, and saw a smaller ship suddenly catapulting itself towards the planet. "Jazz, look!" he said, pointing up at it.

"That looks like Prism's ship,"

"Yeah, but we contacted her just a few moments ago and she was on Earth..." Retract said. "It must be Optimus Prime and Ratchet...she said they were coming to help."

Optimus pressed the necessary buttons for the landing gear to come out. "I just hope we're not too late, Ratchet..." he said, quietly. "It took us longer than I'd hoped to get here."

"Looks like we've got a welcome party," Ratchet said, pointing to the group below.

"Prism said they relayed a message that IMVi was on the move, looks like they're pursuing him..." Optimus said. Before the ship had even fully landed, he popped open the entrance hatch and jumped out of the ship.

Retract looked at the entrance as it opened. "Who wants to bet that kid ain't gonna be on the other side of the door when it opens..."

"He's not..." Rim Shot grimaced.

"I can gather what's happened..." Optimus said to Jazz. "I'm not sure what IMVi hopes to accomplish by reaching that core, but it can't be good..."

"And that little bot went after him by himself..." Retract said.

"Little bot?"

"His name is Wheelie... he was really close to Reverberate and he's become frantic trying to find a way to get IMVi out of control again..." Retract said. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out. "But he ran off from us and now he's in there with that maniac..."

"Arrrrghhhh!" Rim Shot gasped and grabbed his head.

Retract winced and held Rim Shot around the shoulders. "What's wrong kid?!"  
Prime waited for the doors to open. "We need to get the core, as fast as we can. That's where they'll be..."

"Nothing," Rim Shot struggled to get out of Retract's hold, "Happens... occasionally. We need to get inside fast. I—I think Wheelie's in trouble."

Retract nodded. The doors opened, and Optimus rushed in immediately. He looked to Ratchet. "You've dealt with Decepticon viruses before, Ratchet...do you have any idea why he wants to get to that core so badly?"

"Ya lookin' at me? I've dealt with 'em, not studied 'em."

Optimus sighed. The core was ahead, down many lengthy corridors. Retract looked at Rim Shot. "Just keep yourself together, okay?"


	9. Mind Games

Wheelie looked around frantically for any sign of IMVi, but he could move silently. He tried several times to listen for him, but couldn't hear anything. Suddenly he turned a corner, however, and Reverberate was there. He was down on his knees with his elbows against the floor, and his arms over his head. "Re...Reverberate!" he shouted, kneeling down beside him.

"Wh...Wheelie..." Reverberate struggled to say. "Please...I...I need...to get...to the core...while I'm...still in control..." he labored to say. "If...I...can get a large enough...electrical charge...through me...it will… delete IMVi's programming forever, and I'll...I'll be free...please help me..." he pleaded. Wheelie nodded, then helped Reverberate to his feet. The Autobot looked drained, like it had taken everything he'd mustered to break IMVi's hold, if only for a moment. The core wasn't too far ahead, just down one more long corridor that was tunnel-like, but had many twists and turns. Wheelie led him along, helping him walk. The electrical core could be heard ahead, and eventually could be see, a massive pillar of what looked like fluorescent lightning bolts striking from the ceiling to the base many stories below.

Rim Shot nodded. _IMVi? Reverberate? I know you're there. We're coming to help._

_"Rim Shot! Reverberate's presence is back, but just for now...please get to the core, I think it's the only way to eliminate IMVi's programming from him!"_ Wheelie's mind screamed back. The others weren't too far behind, at this point, since Wheelie had been moving slowly to get Reverberate to the core. He was so weak that he tripped several times, and Wheelie had to all but carry him.

_Are you sure that's... okay to do, Wheelie?_

_He said it's the only choice we have, or else IMVi will retake control and then...it might be impossible to ever have Reverberate back..._

They were near the core, now, approaching the circular pathway that went around it. Wheelie could hear the others close behind, coming towards them, their voices resonating off the walls.

"I don't like the looks of this," Sideswipe mumbled.

Retract looked at Sideswipe. "Why do you say that...?" he said.  
Optimus looked ahead; they were part of the way through the last corridor towards the core. Reverberate and Wheelie were standing at the end of it, looking at the core.

"Dear Primus," Sunstreaker breathed, "What are they doing?!?! One slip into that thing and that'll be it."

"It's okay..." Wheelie said back to them. "He just...needs to get enough electricity from it, and Reverberate will be back..." he said, with a smile on his weary face.

Reverberate smiled at the electricity a bit, tiredly. "This will work just fine...and I'll be rid of him soon..." he said, quietly. Reverberate sighed a bit. "You really did keep your promise to me, Wheelie...you really are a good friend..." he said, quietly, and Wheelie just smiled at him.

But Reverberate suddenly frowned, as he looked at the energy. "Unfortunately, your use to me has expired..." he said. Wheelie looked at him confused, for a second, before Reverberate suddenly turned and slashed his claws across Wheelie's throat. The small bot let out a cry, but it was cut short by the blow, and he fell back violently. Oil leaked out of the gaping wound on his neck and he seemed too stunned by pain to move.

"You really are a good friend, though..." Reverberate suddenly turned back into IMVi, still frowning down at him. "Unfortunately Decepticons don't have any use for friends. Only slaves. But I won't put you through that; you're better off dead than gutted and made into a sparkless husk. I told you I would spare you, but I didn't mean your life..." he said, darkly, looking at the energy core. "With this electricity, I'll be able to override that pesky program that Megatron installed in me that kept me from replicating..." he then smiled down at Wheelie, who just looked up at him hopelessly. "It was nice of you to help me, though...I got lost trying to find it. You're so naive and innocent, Wheelie...but I would have thought that given how much you hate Decepticons, you would have realized I was one all along. There was no Reverberate at all, he was just a fake programming that the Autobots installed into me to try and look like heroes. I was your real friend all along..." he chuckled a bit. "You're all so gullible..."

"No..." Wheelie said bitterly, his voice gurgling a bit.

_OPTIMUS!_ Rim Shot shouted with his mind, out of fear. He hadn't meant to reveal his thoughts to Prime; they just slipped out. He frantically pushed his way past Retract, Ratchet, and Optimus and out into the core's holding room. He stood and silently glared at IMVi.

Optimus was startled by the outburst that went through his mind, but he could sense all of the fear and apprehension that was coursing through Rim Shot when he shouted into Optimus's psyche. He rushed ahead after the younger bot.

IMVi just smiled at Rim Shot. "There's nothing you can do to stop me, Rim Shot..." his smile was eerily genuine, almost innocent, not the devious smirk he'd had before. "It will only be a moment now..."  
Wheelie struggled onto his side, gasping as oil leaked from his slashed throat. He looked like he was agony, and not just from the wound. He looked ready to break down and was shaking. _How could he have let IMVi trick him?!_

The sound of metal feet on metal flooring could be heard during the tension of the moment. The twins furrowed their eyebrow plates and looked behind to see who or what was approaching.  
"Did I miss anything? What's happening?" Crowbar frantically said as he pulled to a halt behind Sideswipe.

Sideswipe gave him an odd stare. "Why are you here?"

"Just thought you could use an extra hand."

Retract looked like he was out of breath. This was why he was a medic and not a full-fledged soldier. It was too much of a pain to run everywhere. "We...we're not sure how to get that virus out of Reverberate, chief..." he said to Crowbar. "But a couple of his friends came from Earth to help; they took off just a moment ago."

Optimus caught his breath as he and Ratchet finally reached the near end of the corridor that approached the energy core of the base. He glimpsed Wheelie with a quick look of dismay, then glared at IMVi angrily.

Rim Shot still stood and stared calmly at IMVi. He stepped forward a little bit before stopping.

IMVi looked at Rim Shot, as though he were bored. "Planning to use some of that freakish telepathy on me? Don't bother; you try entering my mind and I'll make sure you see every single spark I devoured during the Great War..." he hissed. "You don't want to see my memories. Take my word for it."

Optimus knelt down by Wheelie. The small bot winced and seemed like he was in a substantial amount of pain, and he couldn't talk with his throat cut. "Ratchet, try and help him..." Optimus said, quietly. "I don't think his wounds are serious, but he's just a kid..."

Rim Shot glared. _It's not your mind I want, demon._

IMVi just smirked a bit. "I didn't think so. But you're not getting that brat, back. This is my body and my spark; he's just baggage..."

Rim Shot ignored IMVi's words and closed his optics in concentration, trying to drown out the vibrating hum of the core. _Reverberate?_

IMVi's aggravated thoughts and growls could be heard, but from beneath that Reverberate's weak voice came out. _R...Rim...Shot...?_

_Reverberate?_

_I...I...can't...get free..._ He sounded very distant, and very weak. Like he might fade out entirely.

_Yes, you can. Just follow my voice._

_I can't follow anything...it's like being in a dark and endless void in here...your voice sounds like it's coming from everywhere..._

IMVi suddenly grabbed Rim Shot by the shoulder and hissed at him. "Enough of your little séance, I'm not letting you mess with my head..." he said, suddenly tossing the young Autobot away. "Reverberate is gone! Accept it, or don't. It makes no difference to me!"

Rim Shot grunted when he hit the floor, but he returned the favor with a swift kick, sending IMVi rolling into Optimus.

IMVi yelped and Optimus reached down and grabbed IMVi hard into his hand. "We need to find a way to separate them..." he said. IMVi just looked thoroughly angry and struggled to get free of his grasp.

Rim Shot calmly walked up to where Optimus held IMVi in his hand, his optics ignored the Autobot leader and stared at the squirming and wriggling body as if he could choke the evil being with his stare._ Reverberate?_ Rim Shot tried again. _I know you're there. We're waiting for you, Rev. Your friends are waiting. Wheelie's been trying his best to save you. Don't say you can't get out. You never know until you try._

_I have been trying! _Reverberate's voice all but screamed out of him. To Rim Shot, with his telekinetic abilities, it looked like Reverberate's spirit hovering around IMVi's form, like he was trapped inside of him both physically and mentally. _IMVi is millions of years old, I've only been alive for a few months, now! I might have his memories and his knowledge, but I'm still a sparkling compared to him. I...I can't fight him away! He's just too strong, Rim Shot...he's a virus programmed to make it impossible for anyone to ever overcome him, I'm...I'm sorry..._

_Don't give up. You say he's strong, but you're stronger. All he knows is how to kill, how to destroy, how to... hurt. You know more than that. You have friends, you know how to love, how to save, how to care, how to comfort. If there's one thing I've learned in my lifetime, it's that good always triumphs over evil. Evil has its weaknesses, and sometimes is even the cause of its own downfall. You're only trapped in here because you keep saying you can't fight him away. I know you can do better than that, Rev. We need you to stay strong and help us get rid of IMVi. You do your part from the inside and we'll do whatever it takes on the outside. But you must help us._

Reverberate looked like he wanted to believe that. _I...I'll try..._ He said, quietly. He started to try and concentrate his presence in IMVi to force his way back out. Slowly, Reverberate's image started to warp over IMVi's. IMVi didn't take too well to it. "I won't let you have him back!" the virus cried out. He suddenly rose his arms and slipped out of Optimus's grasp, landing on the floor and looking at the energy ahead. IMVi smirked at Rim Shot, then Ratchet. "Heh, you know what your EMP can do to Autobot's memories don't you, _gramps_?" he said, calling him that mockingly as Reverberate always had, as a sign of affection. "Imagine what that energy will do to little Reverberate when I reach it..."

Rim Shot reached and snatched IMVi by the nape of the neck. Suddenly an array of different voices filled IMVi's head at once, confusing the viral being. _Reverberate,_ Rim Shot secretly contacted, _IMVi is trying to get into the energy core. What will happen if he does? He keeps taunting us with it, as if something bad is going to happen. But at this point, I don't trust whatever he says._

_If he reaches the energy, it...it could delete my entire programming, or all of his, or both of ours...I don't think he cares which it is, so long as I'm gone..._

Suddenly, without warning, Rim Shot flung IMVi across the room past Optimus and Wheelie and Ratchet. "He must be kept away from the core." he softly spoke aloud.

Optimus looked at Rim Shot, confused. "What will happen if he reaches it?"

"It could destroy Reverberate or both of them."

Optimus nodded. "We'll have to find a way to restrain him, until we can either devise some way to get Reverberate back into full control, or separate them both entirely..." He wasn't sure about that second option, but IMVi seemed too potent and resistant to be held at bay forever, even if Reverberate were put back into control.

"I suggest we get somewhere safer..." Sunstreaker said through gritted teeth as he held his blaster next to IMVi's head. "Make one move and I'll blow those dreads right off your head."

IMVi smirked. "Go right ahead. Just remember whatever gets done to met gets done to your little friend..."

Sunstreaker powered up his blaster, "Yeah, yeah..."

IMVi shrugged, then put his hands behind his head. "You can't hold me at gunpoint forever."

Rim Shot turned and looked down at Wheelie. "I--Is he going to be alright?" he said in a low, timid voice.

Optimus looked down. "I think so. He passed out a minute ago, but Ratchet's bandaged his neck and the bleeding's stopped. We'll just have to wait. I think he just became too stressed from this."


End file.
